Lunch With
MIXALHÍTSA7 ALISON PASCAL
Curator, Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, Whistler, B.C. Interviewed by Lindsay Foreman Managing Editor: Roundup Magazine
L: Would you like to share about your background and the experiences that led to your career in the arts/culture/ heritage/museum sector? A: I grew up in Mount Currie, B.C., 45 minutes north of Whistler. We lived right beside Pemberton, the non-Native part of town, and that’s where I went to school. We experienced a bit of racism, being treated differently for being Indigenous people and for sticking up for our tie to the land. When the logging industry declined in the 1990s, it created a lot of fear, seeing how that one main resource supported the whole town. The old style of logging was so damaging to the environment and influenced my career choice.
The L̓il̓wat7úl (Lil’wat) Nation partnered with the other four host First Nations to develop education opportunities during the 2010 Olympics, one area of which was the tourism sector. That is when I was introduced to Aboriginal Tourism as a more focused program, following the background in tourism management that I had received at Capilano College. Our community was preparing our own people to work in the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) and to develop and share our own story. I took advantage of all of these opportunities, not knowing what I could do with it.
