The following blog is an excerpt from “Women Redefining Home” by the National Park Foundation.
National parks aren’t just lands and places; they’re homes. They are ancestral homelands to many Indigenous tribes, home to park rangers and staff who reside within park boundaries, and home to American bison and California condors that have fought their way back from near extinction. And today, our national parks hold the stories of homemaking itself, sharing the myriad ways in which people have forged connections and built homes within these landscapes.
At the forefront of this exploration into the nature of “home” in the American West is Nicole Martin, Ph.D., who for the past two years, has immersed herself in this subject as the National Park Service’s (NPS) Women’s History in the Pacific West Fellow. Funded through the National Park Foundation’s Women in Parks program, the two-year postdoctoral fellowship seeks to recognize the everyday and extraordinary contributions women have made to our country as well as the roles they continue to play.
Exploring the concept of home and what it means to make a home is both universal – everyone has some understanding of what home means – and highly personal.
Within this meaning, Martin’s journey began with a seemingly simple question: What does home mean? Martin began curating a digital exhibit, titled “Home and Homelands,” exploring the intricate narratives of home and women’s roles in the West.
“Everybody has some idea of what a home is, even though people’s ideas are vastly different about what that is,” Martin said.
Through her work on “Home and Homelands,” Martin challenges conventional notions of women’s history by expanding the exhibit’s narrative beyond domestic stereotypes. She not only spotlights the often-overlooked contributions of women in shaping the American West but also captures the contested politics of homemaking in the West. Martin’s work is not just about uncovering forgotten stories; it’s about reshaping prevailing narratives that have long defined our understanding of home.
Continue reading “Women Redefining Home” from the National Park Foundation’s blog here.
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
Start the Conversation