Artworks
Drawing, ink on paper
Landslide XL is a depiction of a famous landslide on the Gold Rush trail, in Canada’s Klondike region, specifically Dawson City, Yukon. This landslide, known to the local Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation as Ëdhä Dädhëcha, or as Moosehide Slide to settlers, holds both mythological and socio-political symbolism. According to the local mythology, Dänojà people lived relatively peaceful lives in Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in country until cannibals came along. In settler history, tens of thousands of eager gold seekers arrived in 1897 and lived on the slide during a housing shortage. Gold digging wreaked serious havoc on the land. The government’s pro-development attitude of maximizing resource extraction resulted in irremediable changes to the environment in this region.