Honey
Harbor: Developing a Sense of Place
Monica
Taylor - 4522884
GEOG
2P06
TA:
Amanda Amore
Submission
Date: Thursday October 18, 2012
Brock
University
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 2
Honey
Harbor: Developing a Sense of Place
GEOG
2P06
Within the district municipality of Muskoka
is a harbor town that, although small in size, provides a gateway to an
incredible expanse of Georgian Bay waters and lifestyle. Honey Harbor serves as
a launching point to the “30 000 islands that make up the Georgian Bay
geography” (Honey Harbor, 2012). This town, with a population of 2124 (Census,
2012) serves as a base in this paper in the attempt to understand how this
community can create a sense of place that expands itself far out into the
expanse of cottages that line the waters and to the cottagers who use Honey
Harbor as their marina and base for community and culture. In order to
understand how sense of place is created, place itself must be defined and
understood as the groundwork for creating a “sense of place”. Using three key
features of personal experience as a cottager, the multiple layers of what
creates a sense of place as well as constructing a working definition of what
sense of place means to the culture of cottagers in that region will be
assessed. First, using the physical landscape of water as means of travel to
and from the cottage to the harbor creates the concept of place. A second layer
is viewing the primal landscape of the region and a third layer is
deconstructing how place based education is used to improve a sense of place for
both locals and especially the seasonal cottagers.
A
unique feature of Honey Harbor that assists in the creation of a sense of place
is the water systems that are used by all cottagers and home owners to travel
from one place to another. There is little road access which is a key element
in understanding how place is developed. Yi Fu
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 3
Tuan, in his book “Space and
Place: The Perspective of Experience”, describes space as “requiring movement
from a place to another place – a place requires space to be a place” (Tuan,
1977, p.9). The community feeling on the water of going from a place that has
been developed as “home” (cottage or home) to the small town of Honey Harbor
(marina) connects the two in one entity that can be described as a “place” that
has significant meaning to all those who use it. Tuan describes this phenomenon
well by saying “Movements are often directed toward, or repulsed by, objects
and places. Hence space can be variously experiences as the relative location
of objects or places, and – more abstractly – as the area defined by a network
of places.” (Tuan, 1977, p.12).
Once
the concept of place has been established, moving towards an understanding of
how feelings, memories and experiences effect a process called experiential
perspective. Using such a personal place, it is easy to see how ones
experiences with a place over time can anchor a sense of belonging. The concept
of being able to relate to the world through the space and place in which you
call home and spend your time is essential in developing as a person. The cycle
of place affecting a person and in turn, the person affecting space is
something that can be seen in Honey Harbor. An example of this is how a group
of children who were fascinated with the boats on the water and began to paint
paintings of what they saw and interpreted and sold them at the local store
“The Bee Hive” in Honey Harbor. These children have created a sense of meaning
and belonging through interacting with the space created by the water which
connects them from their home/cottage to the main land. Cresswell describes
this “conception of place describes a way of relating to the world. It insists
that people have the burden of making their own meaning
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 4
in the world through their own
actions. Key here is the idea of ‘experience’. It is this notion of experience
that lies at the heart of the humanistic approach to place” (Cresswell, 2006,
p.1).
Using
personal experiences of primal landscape interaction assists in understanding
how personally experiencing Honey Harbor throughout childhood develops a sense
of place and how this development has implications for the space in the future.
A primal landscape is defined by Measham as “landscapes that are concerned with
the interaction that occurs between children and the environments in which they
mature” (Measham, 2006, p.426)
Developing
an attachment and meaning and in turn, sense of place, is directly influenced
by learning about the environment around you. As a child, they have the ability
to grow and learn about the world, that includes the landscapes available.
Measham includes in his paper that “learning about our environments during
childhood is strongly influenced by the direct experience of playing, as well
as through the role of family, culture and community” (Measham, 2006, p.426).
Honey Harbor, being such a small community, provides a unique experience for
children as the community and culture is like a family. The learning and
experiencing of landscape that happens throughout childhood is fostered by the
community and family feeling. Many families are routed there and since cottages
are usually passed down from generation to generation the attitudes and beliefs
about the environment that are fostered in childhood caries on to adulthood.
These adults are therefore more likely to feel that personal attachment and
sense of place for Honey Harbor and make more personalized and caring decisions
about environmental
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 5
choices (for example: who to
vote for in municipal elections based on environmental care, proper boating
measures on the water, waste disposal and proper shoreline management).
This
idea of place – based education is especially important for the area of Honey
Harbor as we build upon the importance of the experiences of those who live in
the town and cottage areas especially as children. Place – based education is
an attempt to help communities solve community problems through using students
and school staff of the area. Place – based education promotes the focus on
local examples and learning, which is important in developing a sense of place.
Many people begin thinking at a local level and very quickly forget the
importance of that specific place as they move onto broader thinking in terms
of global scale issues and solutions. It is within the best interest of the
school and municipal community to foster the concept of sense of place in
students and teaching them how to bring that love of place and understanding of
the unique landscape around them into action. It is this primal instinct that
can ensure the reservation of local tradition and landscape preservation
because people who make these decisions uniquely care about these places. We
can see place – based education at work in the small local school: The Honey
Harbor Elementary school. They are part of a program called the “Group of
Seven”, this committee is school board wide and has each school focus locally
on the environmental uniqueness of place and the environmental issues at hand
and how they, as student, and later in life as adults can make positive
changes. The program provides students with materials and an opportunity to
share their findings with other schools and other regions through a conference
once a year.
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 6
In
conclusion, Honey Harbor, was used as an example of a landscape that has been
transformed through the defining of space, primal landscape interaction and
place based education in order to grasp the concept of what is sense of place.
The local community of both permanent residences and seasonal cottagers will be
able to make a difference in the preservation of the local landscape because of
the unique sense of belonging and caring for the space and place around them.
This study and understanding of landscape can be a productive way of exploring
further implications that the environment can have on a community and on the
culture present in the area. Honey Harbors gateway to the cottage lifestyle and
beautiful Muskoka environments will continue to inspire future generations to
develop their own sense of place through experiencing the landscapes around
them.
HONEY HARBOR: DEVELOPING A SENSE OF PLACE 7
References
Cresswell, T. (2009). Place. Royal Holloway: University of
London.
Measham, T.G. Learning about
Environments: The Significance of Primal Landscapes Journal: Earth and Environment Management. Volume 38, Number 3
(2006), 426-424.
Statistics Canada. (2011). 2011 Census of Population (Catalogue
number 98-316-XWE). Retrieved October 2, 2012 from Statistics
Canada: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/
census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E
Tuan,
Yi Fu. (1977). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience.
Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
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