Support NiCHE’s Work, Contribute to our 2025 Fundraising Campaign Here.
Editor’s Note: This is the ninth post in Part V of the Visual Cultures of the Circumpolar North series edited by Isabelle Gapp and guest edited by Sarah Pickman.
How do you encounter the history of a place, and how do visual cultures shape that experience?
Dawson City, Yukon, offers a rich setting to explore these questions through its dynamic visual landscape of heritage interpretation and display. Dawson1 was founded during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s, and almost overnight became a hub of the surrounding region’s booming mining industry. The discovery of gold in Gah Dëk (Rabbit/Bonanza Creek) continues to be celebrated as a founding moment for non-Indigenous Yukon and remains central to Canada’s broader nation-building narrative2–one deeply embedded in the mythos and colonial romanticization of the North as the conquered “last frontier.”
Following the collapse of large-scale mining by the mid-twentieth century and rise of heritage tourism, the town’s history has been continuously reshaped through acts of commemoration. Today, the work of Dawson’s museums, heritage sites, and cultural centre reveal how visual practices, especially within exhibition spaces, guide how the public visualize and engage with the complex histories of this place that far predates and transcends the Gold Rush period.
This authorized commemoration of heritage in Dawson began with Parks Canada’s arrival in the mid-1950s and the designation of the Dawson Historic Complex as a National Historic Site. Several buildings were recognized for national historical significance as they are, “…associated with the Klondike Gold Rush… and reflect the social, economic, and political features that shaped the Yukon region over the last century.”3 Around the same time, the Dawson City Museum, founded in 1954 by the Klondike Tourist Bureau (now the Klondike Visitor Association), emerged as another key site where visitors could engage with visual stories of the past.4 After a fire destroyed its first location in 1960, the Museum relocated to the Old Territorial Administration Building, constructed in 1901 as the colonial administrative hub of the newly founded Yukon Territory.
Visitors were drawn to the Dawson City Museum by the promise of heritage made tangible, stepping into narratives that long centralized the story of the Gold Rush as a crucial history of northern Canada. The photograph below, taken inside the Museum between the late 1980s and early 2000s, illustrates the earlier approach to visual storytelling. Wax figures, scattered artifacts, and recreated environments took centre stage. Displays during this time focused on quotidian aspects of settler life during the Gold Rush era, with quaint scenes that emphasized the daring and resilience of the miners and their families; reflecting the popular national narratives that underscored the lasting impacts of this brief boomtown period on the region’s history.
The 1990s marked a turning point in how Dawson’s heritage was and continues to be shared. The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Final Agreement, signed in 1998, established the First Nation’s self-government and formalized its relationship with the land and governance structures. Within the Agreement, Chapter 13 outlines the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in heritage objectives, “…to promote public awareness and understanding of Yukon’s cultures and histories, and to respect and foster the culture and heritage of Yukon First Nations.”5 While the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in had traversed and inhabited these lands for thousands of years prior to the Gold Rush, their narratives had previously been marginalized in favour of a story of Euro-Canadian migration, settlement, and economic extraction.
The opening of Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre (Dänojà Zho meaning “Long Time Ago House”6 in Hän), on July 1, 1998, embodied a shift towards more expansive storytelling among Dawson-area institutions. Dänojà Zho has and continues to welcome Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Citizens, locals, and outside visitors to engage with their stories and perspectives through both permanent and temporary exhibits, grounding Dawson’s visitor experience in the voices of the first people of the Klondike.
The influence of Dänojà Zho and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Heritage Department extends across the town’s heritage institutions. A prominent example is the Dawson City Museum’s multi-year renewal of its permanent exhibits, which reopened in 2021. From the outset, the project involved consultation with Dänojà Zho and the Heritage Department to ensure that Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in history is rendered as an ongoing presence, reflecting the collective and individual narratives woven throughout how the history of this place and its people is presented.7
This shift is most visible today in the museum’s main floor gallery, where visitors first encounter a central cube devoted to Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in stories. On the left side of the cube are a fishing spear and hammerstone that introduce the name Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, translating to “We are the people who lived at the mouth of the Klondike.”8 This case design allows for artifacts to be on display from all angles and be intentionally placed in the central narrative–a stark contrast to these objects and their stories lost in the background, as seen in the Museum’s first exhibit space in 1959.
Inside the cube, quotes from Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Elders and Citizens frame artifacts such as paddles and toboggans. Moving outward, the surrounding exhibits trace the Gold Rush and town-building narratives, allowing visitors to see these stories as interconnected. Upstairs galleries extend this thread into the twentieth century, reframing the Gold Rush as only one moment within a much longer local history.
When visitors and locals now encounter Dawson’s history in its public institutions, they are met with many layers of storytelling. From the federal commemorative intent behind the Gold Rush narrative to the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Final Agreement and the Dawson City Museum’s renewed exhibits, the town’s heritage landscape continues to evolve.
Mind you, these are only a few highlights of the impressive work that countless individuals continue in Dawson. Today’s heritage interpreters and administrators carry this work forward, drawing on years of patient, trust-based relationships to share narratives that are deeply insightful and informed.
Having lived in Dawson and curated an exhibit at the Dawson City Museum this past summer, I have experienced firsthand how collaborative storytelling and visual culture shape how Dawson’s history is remembered and shared. My exhibit, What You Take With You: Living Tourism in the Tr’ondëk-Klondike, was inspired by conversations with longtime locals, heritage professionals, and museum staff, and invites visitors to reflect on their journeys and what they would take with them from their time here–whether that is a souvenir, lasting memory, or street dust on their shoes. Centred upon four living elements of how people experience this place–Zhazhìt (in the sky), Nänkäk (on the land), Hän (river), and Kek’it (town)–this exhibit taught me that the curation of visual narratives can create connections between people, place, and memory in ways that words alone cannot.
Today, within its museums, historic sites, cultural centre, and recent UNESCO World Heritage designation, Dawson’s visual storytelling continues to demonstrate the power of collaborative heritage work, showcasing how history is constantly being challenged, reimagined and brought to life. I feel deeply grateful to have learned from and contributed to this ongoing story, as I continue to witness how the dedication and insights of this heritage community actively work to enrich, expand, and animate this remarkable place.
Notes
[1] Henceforth, the town will be referred to as ‘Dawson,’ as it is known locally.
[2] David Neufeld, “A Cultural Cartography of the Tr’ondëk-Klondike: Mapping plural Knowledges,” Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien Sonderheft,2018, 130, http://www.kanada-studien.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/ZKS_2018-67_7Neufeld.pdf.
[3] Parks Canada Agency, “Dawson Historical Complex National Historic Site,” Klondike National Historic Sites, last modified April 18, 2024, https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/yt/klondike/culture/lhn-nhs-dawson.
[4] Robin Nelson, “Case Study: Dawson City Museum Timeline — 1950s and Earlier,” Museoception, July 19, 2021, https://museoception.ca/2021/07/19/case-study-dawson-city-museum-timeline-1950s-and-earlier/.
[5] Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Final Agreement, Chapter 13 – Heritage, Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1998, https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1297209099174/1542826344768#chp13.
[6] Jody Beaumont, Michael Edwards and Cirque Consulting + Communications, Yukon River Community Profiles: Whitehorse to Dawson City,2021, 19, https://travolution.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/First-Nations-interpretative-manual.pdf.
[7] Tara Borin, “Beyond the Gold Rush: Makeover at the Dawson City Museum Reveals What’s Been in the Region All Along,” Yukon Traveller, 2025/26, 36–37.
[8] Helen Dobrowolsky, “Chapter 1: People of the River” in Hammerstones, A History of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, 2014, 4.
Feature image: Visitor examining historical objects, portraits, and a clock on display at the Dawson City Museum, 1959. DCM 1991.40.6
Patricia Roussel
Latest posts by Patricia Roussel (see all)
- Call for Papers for the 2026 Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium - November 26, 2025
- Exhibiting Dawson: Visual Narratives of an Interconnected Past - November 20, 2025