University of Calgary Press

About the Book

Elders and leaders remind us that telling and amplifying histories is key for healing. Remembering Our Relations is an ambitious collaborative oral history project that shares the story of Wood Buffalo National Park and the Dënesųłıné peoples it displaced.

Wood Buffalo National Park is located in the heart of Dënesųłıné homelands, where Dené people have lived from time immemorial. Central to the creation, expansion, and management of this park, Canada’s largest at nearly 45, 000 square kilometers, was the eviction of Dënesųłıné people from their home, the forced separation of Dene families, and restriction of their Treaty rights.

Remembering Our Relations tells the history of Wood Buffalo National Park from a Dene perspective and within the context of Treaty 8. Oral history and testimony from Dene Elders, knowledge-holders, leaders, and community members place Dënesųłıné voices first. With supporting archival research, this book demonstrates how the founding, expansion, and management of Wood Buffalo National Park fits into a wider pattern of promises broken by settler colonial governments managing land use throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

By prioritizing Dënesųłıné histories Remembering Our Relations deliberately challenges how Dene experiences have been erased, and how this erasure has been used to justify violence against Dënesųłıné homelands and people. Amplifying the voices and lives of the past, present, and future, Remembering Our Relations is a crucial step in the journey for healing and justice Dënesųłıné peoples have been pursuing for over a century.

About the Authors

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation are a Dene community who have resided within and moved across their territories since time immemorial. They are the Etthen eldeli Dene, a name that points to the vastness of their homeland based on the historical migratory patterns of the barren ground caribou, and the K’ai Tailé Dene, a name that signifies deep-rooted connection with the rich landscapes at the delta of the Peace and Athabasca rivers.

Peter Fortna is a co-owner and principal at Willow Springs Strategic Solutions, a social sciences and humanities research consultancy based in Treaty 7 and Treaty 8 Territories. He has worked with a number of Indigenous communities across capacities, including historical and community-based research, heritage resource planning, and regulatory and strategic advice.

Sabina Trimble is a research director at Willow Springs Strategic Solutions. She has worked with Xwélmexw communities in S’ólh Téméw to build digital storymaps of traditional and reserve territories for public education and community planning. Her academic research explores the complex roles that settler philanthropy has played in the landscape of colonial relations in Canada both past and present.