Oil sands

• The recent renaming of the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa to Kichi Zībī Mīkan (“Great River Road”) comes as Canada Day invites Canadians to define not only where we are, but also who we are in our national imagination.
• In my field of environmental communication, we learn that how we represent a place can reveal much about the place and even more about who we are and what we value.

Space and place

• The geographer Yi-Fu Tuan recognized that humans have universal biological, psychological, social and spiritual needs for both space and place.
• In this light, place is more than a location; it also imbues human experiences, emotions and meanings tied to our environment.

Place and collective identity

• Environmental psychology suggests place can also become a source of our collective identity.
• For Canadians, land has become a powerful source of not only attachment but also self-definition, distinction and pride.

Place branding

• Place branding has important implications in the international arena for political influence, trading relationships and more.
• Unprecedented interest in Indigenous culture and history shines a spotlight on Canada and its relations with First Peoples.

Depicting place

• My study, Tar Wars, illustrated how representations of place have mattered to public understandings of Alberta and Canada in light of their stewardship of the Athabasca tar/oilsands.
• These films called attention to the effects the massive extraction project had on the health, well-being and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples in affected communities.

Place as inspiration for action

• If settler Canadians value their home, their place and how it’s perceived here and abroad, then we may pause on the nation’s 156th birthday to imagine how diverse Indigenous Peoples, who have been here since time immemorial, might feel about this place sometimes called Canada.
• We might choose to take up Ermine’s invitation to create new ethical spaces for engagement.