14. Indigenous People: Discussing the Forgotten Dimension of Dark Tourism and Battlefield Tourism

Dark tourism and battlefield tourism have tended to focus on the social aspects of visits, such as marketing and interpretation, yet largely ignore the cultural and spiritual dimensions of these sites of death and loss. This chapter addresses these shortcomings through an examination of two well-known indigenous battlefields sites and outlines the potential lessons learned from these sites for the Canadian north. The goals of this chapter are both to (a) provide a contextual overview of issues related to the recognition and development of indigenous sites of death, loss, and battlefields, including cultural dissonance, and (b) explore these processes with reference to the Canadian North. We will address some of the limitations that have been noted in dark and battlefield tourism, including the tendency to focus on European sites or sites of colonial “victories” which perpetuate grand “colonial” narratives, while arguing for the need to recognize commemorative, cultural, and spiritual aspects. We also provide a rationale as to why most sites in Northern Canada have been excluded from the dark and/or battlefield narratives.