SETTLER IGNORANCE AND PUBLIC MEMORY: KINGSTON, ONTARIO

ABSTRACT

Since the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, municipalities are increasingly addressing reconciliation in their practice, including new engagement with Indigenous heritage and public memory. Nevertheless, municipal perspectives of heritage are frequently colonial and result in commemorative landscapes that reinforce official national narratives of history and identity. These landscapes limit expressions of Indigenous heritage and reinforce settler ignorance. This article explores settler-colonial commemorative practice in the context of reconciliation in Canada and presents what was learned through conversations with Indigenous peoples in Kingston, a mid-sized city in Ontario, Canada. It emphasizes the need for productive settler discomfort in addressing settler ignorance and considers how reimagined places of public memory might unsettle hegemonic heritage narratives in Canadian cities. Noting the limitations of settler-Canadian commemoration in the context of reconciliation, it posits how decolonizing commemorative practices might offer new pathways for building relations.

Keywords::

• settler ignorance
• reconciliation
• public heritage

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ See Youdelis (2016) on the antipolitics of Indigenous consultation.

² Keen examples include artist Jamie Black’s REDress project, the Walking With Our Sisters commemorative art installation, or the tepee constructed on Parliament Hill during Canada’s sesquicentennial celebrations.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.