Views from Young Professionals: Practice Makes Practice

Abstract

This chapter presents perspectives on the heritage conservationHeritage conservation field from an emerging professional. Acknowledging the significance of reconciliationReconciliation as a contemporary value of heritage conservationHeritage conservation in Canada, the first part highlights two important aspects of reconciliatory heritage practice: revealing cultural narratives, and supporting cultural practiceCultural practices. It argues that emerging heritage practitioners are well positioned to listen deeply and seize opportunities to collaborate with ancestral communities, hard-to-reach populations, and seemingly separate disciplines along the way. The second part of the chapter proposes considering Canada’s historic estates from an Indigenous cultural perspective, as a small step toward reconciliatory heritage practice. Such a process has the power to shift the nature of their existence, facilitating cross-cultural dialogue, and metaphorically lifting the velvet rope that privileges their Eurocentric narratives over Indigenous history and cultural practicesCultural practices. It concludes with two case studies of historic estates in Ontario, the Chedoke Estate in Hamilton and Willowbank Estate in Queenston. Located at distinct points along the Niagara Escarpment, both landscapes have been shaped by Indigenous and settler ideas and practices, presenting untapped potential to reveal deeper truths and foster both traditional and contemporary Indigenous cultural practiceCultural practices.