Jasper National Park (JNP) is seeking possible locations for aboriginal groups that have historical ties with the park to carry out activities and reconnect with the area.

With the hope of having a program either in town or in the campgrounds starting next summer on a pilot basis, JNP staff have identified a number of potential sites for use by up to 20 different aboriginal communities from Alberta and British Columbia.

“What we’re doing is right now is trying to identify some possible locations for use by aboriginal communities for them to use for carrying out community based ceremonies and activities – basically elders and youth, reconnecting with the park and carrying out the sort of traditional teachings,” said JNP superintendent Greg Fenton. He said at the moment there aren’t any specific requests, but they are trying to identify from a parks perspective what locations might meet the requirements of the communities.

Most locations will require washrooms, parking and access to water, as most activities would be a day or two long, sometimes including camping activities. The Snaring campground overflow and the Whirlpool group campground are potential sites that have been discussed with First Nations representatives.

Fenton said they are currently looking at areas that already have facilities that can still meet the requirements of the communities. If they don’t, he said, they will look at what the feasibility would be and make the decision as to whether or not they will formalize certain areas, for how many people, how often and what kinds of things might go on.

The search for these sites falls under JNP and the Jasper Aboriginal Forum’s areas of interest to help strengthen aboriginal relationships, described in the JNP management plan. The other five main areas of interest are: participating in decision-making, traditional knowledge, cultural programming, resource conservation activities and economic and employment opportunities.

Fenton said most of the locations aren’t meant to be permanent or exclusive to the First Nation communities, but said they certainly need to have privacy areas or undisturbed time when they are using the sites.

“It’s mostly just sweats and traditional teachings of youth,” said Fenton. “These activities would not be open to the public. It’s basically a number of community members coming in and carrying out traditional teachings in a fairly low key, informal but private setting, not available to the public. Quite often, it’s elders interacting with youth, talking about language, talking about their history and culture, talking about the park, and the role of the uses of the park and the areas by their people historically.”

Fenton also mentioned they want to facilitate having aboriginal communities tell their history and stories and culture to members of the community and tourists.

“We haven’t got anything specific over and above what we’ve been doing for  National Aboriginal Days celebrations, but we’re hopeful we’ll be able to have some sort of program either in town or in the campgrounds starting this summer at least on a pilot basis, start it fairly small and hopefully build on it,” Fenton said.