(Re)conciliation Working Group
of the Canadian Association for the Conservation of Cultural Property
Groupe de travail sur la (ré)conciliation
de l'Association canadienne pour la conservation et la restauration des biens culturels
Guidance for Practice on Colonial Statues and Memorials Sites
Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) 24hr Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Confirmation that unmarked graves exist on the grounds of former residential schools has re-traumatized survivors and initiated a public outcry.
The RWG would like to express solidarity with our communities and with all Indigenous people in this difficult time.
We would also like to provide some guidance to conservators and other cultural heritage professionals who may be asked to intervene on objects and in situations that are related to recent events.
As conservators, we have the power to preserve voices: it is our responsibility to take Indigenous perspectives into account and to be responsible for the results of our actions and inactions.
We encourage conservators to consult the CAC-CAPC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice for support, in particular CAC-CAPC Ethical Principles:1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9. We also encourage you to review your own practice in relation to Indigenous values, views and perspectives by consulting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), especially articles 11, 12 and 31, and Appendix E, Ethical Guidelines for Research, of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP).
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Beyond this, we would also like to provide specific guidance related to, in particular:
(1) colonial statues and
(2) memorial sites.
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Colonial Statues
Interventions have been and will continue to be carried out on public colonial statues with paint, messages, objects, symbols, and tools. For many, these materials and actions are now part of the physical, conceptual, and historical integrity of these objects.
If conservation treatment is considered, consultation with communities must be undertaken first. The removal of interventions is considered by many to reinforce the colonial system; from this perspective, erasure not only damages the integrity of the object but contributes to the silencing of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis voices.
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Actions you can take:
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Avoid using the word “vandalism” to describe such interventions.
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Reflect on your bias and engage other perspectives
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Consult communities and find allies wherever you can.
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Write to your local MP and/or owner of the statue to explain why such interventions represent the changing significance of the object and should be valued and respected.
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Write to your municipal/provincial/national museum to ask how they are supporting the preservation of interventions and to advocate for documentation of important events and actions.
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Provide options to delay treatments until required consultations can be completed.
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Resources:
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“Preservation of Confederate Monuments in the Era of Black Lives Matter” Summary and Recording
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As the Statues Fall: A Conversation about Monuments and the Power of Memory
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Indigenous artists reimagine new statue at Manitoba Legislature in place of Queen Victoria Vandalism is in the Eye of the Beholder (Niigaan Sinclair)
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Memorial Sites
Thousands of community-driven memorials have manifested in public and private spaces to mourn the children who died in Canada’s Residential School System. These include hundreds of shoes symbolizing children as well as living interventions like the planting of white pine saplings (e.g. 1492 Land Back Lane).
We are also seeing mistakes being made, such as the swift removal of memorial objects (e.g B.C Legislature ).
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Actions you can take:
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Move at the pace set by the respective communities involved.
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Only preserve memorial items if Indigenous community groups involved want them preserved.
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Review your own institutional policies around memorial items.
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Consult communities and find allies wherever you can
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Advocate for the sanctity of public memorials by writing to custodians of public buildings and sites.
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Resources
Finally, we’d like to remind you that conservators working in and outside of institutions are also individuals with the ability to contribute to the process of unsettling* colonial practices through advocacy and education. You have the right to protest.
If you would like to consult the RWG about any of these issues, we are here to help. Please contact us through our contact page with any questions. Please indicate if you’d like your question to be kept confidential.
*Attempt to assert a decolonizing approach to museum practices through the rejection of ongoing/socially upheld colonial mechanisms (source).
Published July 12th, 2021
Written by RWG Members
Illustrations of interventions on the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald in Montreal by Charlotte Parent
