Project

Re-Storying an Industrial Landscape: Moving Beyond Traditional Approaches to Heritage Interpretation

Program

Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowships

Department

Social Sciences

Abstract

Approaches to heritage interpretation often produce site narratives that are incomplete, leaving visitors without access to the whole story of a place. At industrial heritage sites in Minnesota’s ‘Iron Range’, this approach has often excluded Indigenous and Descendant community narratives detailing their relationships with iron mining. What relationships do Indigenous and Descendant community members have with historic and contemporary iron mining in Minnesota’s ‘Iron Range,’ and how can industrial heritage sites co-create interpretation through inclusive, equitable engagement practices to tell these stories? This research, guided by the Two Row Wampum Paradigm, combines Indigenous storywork and photovoice for traditional knowledge sharing to advance inclusive, equitable heritage interpretation practices with Indigenous and Descendant communities to produce an integrated model and framework for industrial heritage sites to co-create heritage interpretation.