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Landscape Aesthetics, Water, and Settler Colonialism in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia

Bibliographic Data

ID6078827
AuthorsJohn Wagner (0000-0003-2266-0184)
Year2008
Volume12
Issue1
Pages22-38
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Ecological Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1528-6509 • E-ISSN: 2162-4593
PublisherUniversity of South Florida Libraries (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5038/2162-4593.12.1.2
OpenAlexW1965852825
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited8

Historic and contemporary patterns of settler colonialism and agricultural development in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia are described, emphasizing the ways in which settler culture has led to the production of a landscape aesthetic that reproduces colonization as an iterative cultural practice. I explore the ways in which this particular landscape aesthetic is dependent on the economic and symbolic meanings of water in Okanagan settlement history. The images of the Okanagan that were used to attract settlers to the valley a century ago emphasized the lush, oasis-like qualities of orchards and lakes set among a dramatic, arid and mountainous backdrop. This oasis aesthetic exists in sharp contrast to that held by the Syilx indigenous people who were displaced and marginalized as a consequence of agricultural development. Today, as land prices escalate and orchards become less economically viable, it is the orchardists themselves who are being displaced by a new generation of settlers who come here to retire or make their livings in the wine tourism industry. As the environmental costs of these changes accumulate, Okanagan residents are challenged to articulate a more sustainable landscape aesthetic rooted in local ecology

Agriculture · Archaeology · Colonialism · Cultural landscape · Geography · Indigenous · Settlement (finance · Tourism · American Environmental and Regional History · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Landscape and Cultural Studies · Ecology · History

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Unique citing works7
Citations per year0,5
Citation span2012 - 2024 (13)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 6

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