Landscapes, Wildlife, and Grey Owl: Settler Colonial Imaginaries and Tourist Spaces in William J. Oliver’s Parks Branch Films, 1920s-1930s

Abstract

During the interwar period, the Calgary-based filmmaker, William J. Oliver, filmed the majority of motion pictures for Canada’s Parks Branch. In addition to promoting colonial-nationalist landscapes, Oliver specialized in wildlife films. Oliver’s “beaver films,” which featured ersatz Indigeneity in the persona of Grey Owl who, in reality, was the English-born writer and conservationist Archibald Belaney, are examined. Grey Owl centered his broad naturalist message on the beaver – an imperial and national signifier – whose population had declined across northern Canada due to over-hunting. In the settler colonial imagination, Grey Owl appears as a liminal figure, existing somewhere between human and nonhuman animal. Oliver’s wildlife productions fostered human–nonhuman animal relationships based on an appreciation for the authentic creatures within the protected boundaries of the nation. The erasure of Indigenous communities and the concomitant preservation of native nonhuman animals in their natural habitat has been central to the Canadian park imaginary since its founding.