The Importance of Commemoration to the Making of National Identity: Canada - Essay Example

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMEMORATION TO THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF NATIONAL IDENTITY AND THE NATIONAL PAST: THE CASE OF CANADA College Date Heritage and Identity: An Introduction Graham and Howard (2008) note that conceptual conceptualities attend to both heritage and identity. As a result, the relationship between the two is multi-faceted, taking into consideration both its spatial and temporal aspects. According to the aforementioned authors, identity markers of all nations significantly form a vital part of their heritage. On the other hand, heritage is not just limited to being a legacy of a nation’s past. Rather, it also becomes an important representation of certain nationalism (Graham and Howard 2008; Cohen 1994)). To prove this point, Graham and Howard cited music, art and language being important markers of identity, but not really a part of heritage. Simply put, not all identity markers are a part of a nation’s heritage. In the same manner, not all aspects of heritage are then essential parts of the national identity, considering that cultural tourism is increasing its popularity in the world nowadays. Heritage, however, becomes essential to the commemoration and the remaking of the national identity and national past of different countries. This is because of the challenges brought about by the existence of pluralistic societies which are eventually brought about by the collapse of imperial and colonial institutions. The remaking of the past then signifies the unification of all aspects of heritage wherein who we are and who others want us to be lies (Graham and Howard 2008). Canada is one of the countries which were seen to have made use of strategies concerning their heritage and identities in order to successfully integrate its people who are divided by many factors such as geography, history, ethnicity and class. In order to efficiently integrate these people, the officials of the country focused its strategy on the construction of national identity that is self-consciously aware of place. This, according to Osborne (2001) is a very popular strategy among nationalizing states as they make use of different initiatives in order to strengthen their people’s emotional bonding with the country’s history and geography. In fact, the said strategies are more popular with the new nations who are currently confronting problems with regard to the incorporation of peripheral domains as well as those engaged in the assimilation of diverse people to achieve national homogeneity, Osborne (2001) further discusses. Several mechanisms – technological, constitutional, institutional, and most importantly, cultural - had been used in order to achieve such purpose. Other steps used include the attempt to nurture identification with a place or community using high art and literature, mass communication, architecture, monuments, ceremonies, rituals and myths. According to Osborne (2001), the aforementioned were essential to the creation of an awareness of belonging. For the Canadians, nation-building is of great importance considering that a number of challenges – colonial, regional, fractional and continental – have challenged their national unity. However, the appropriateness of homogeneous societies in the modern times can be questioned. Especially since pluralistic societies are considered a consequence for the increasing globalization of the entire world. This paper shall be looking into the need to constantly remake national identity and the national past, based on the experiences of Canada, one of the countries who are said to be working towards the homogenization of its society. However, their efforts in building a strong national identity is faced with many challenges brought about by their plurality. This paper shall focus on a critical evaluation of the importance of commemoration to the making and remaking of national identity and the national past. National Identity: A Definition and the Threats to its Development Central to this discussion would be the concept of national identity. Basically, the concept of national identity is related with the doctrine of nationalism which puts forward the idea that human beings are naturally divided into different nations. These nations have then different rights, one being self-governance, wherein it is capable of demanding loyalty from its citizens (Kaplan 1994). However, at it has been earlier mentioned, there are many factors that threaten the development of a strong national identity. One of which is based on the concept from which national identity eventually comes from: the spatial identity, Kaplan (1994) discuses. Spatial identity basically advances the thought that people feel more identified with a culture group to which they are members. These culture groups usually possess their own core values that are based on their common language, religion and heritage. More often than not, different culture groups exist in each nation state, making it difficult for the latter to establish a strong sense of national identity (Kaplan 1994). As a result, pluralistic countries resorted to the application of initiatives that would reflect the plurality of their society, based on their past experiences. The countries begin to incorporate all practices in order to ensure that each of the different culture groups would identify themselves with the entire nation. Building the Canadian National Identity and the Remake of the National Past As it has been mentioned, the development of national identity has been one of the priorities of Canada. However, it has been of very great difficulty for them considering that for over two hundred years, two national groups, with their own spatial identities have dominated the country: the French-Canadians and the English-Canadians. Although having lived in the same country these two groups have kept sharp and intact distinction between themselves (Kaplan 1994). The creation of the national identity and the remake of a national past require the proper analysis of the geography of identity (Osborne 2001). This is of course, of vital importance, considering that there are two groups in the Canadian nation-state that eventually vie for dominance, based on their own perceived principles of spatial identity (Kaplan 1994). According to Ryden (2000), one becomes more identified with a particular region. This identification must then be continuously influenced by the person’s knowledge of a certain society’s past experiences. Moreover, the awareness of a national identity entails the people’s identification with certain places which could serve as mnemonic devices. According to Osborne, the construction of such symbols develops the identification of people with social values. This statement of Osborne then concurs with the claim made by Smith (2006) in her book entitled Uses of Heritage. For Smith (2006), the construction of physical objects and places in order to create a nationalistic identity do not really have heritage values. Rather, they are only used in order to give concreteness to the values being upheld by the different communities. Upon having identified with the said values exhibited by such objects, the attachment of the people towards that area is guaranteed. After all, human attachment to a certain place requires their understanding of the people’s traditional knowledge, their cultural practice, the different forms of communication, and finally, the different conventions needed in order to imagine the past (Osborne 2001). As a result, tools of historical imagination that stimulate multiple acts of remembering, conjecture and speculation became very popular. These tools are usually called world-building, place-marking, and constructing places. Without the aforementioned, self-knowledge and the efficient creation of national identity could not be achieved. As Basso (1996) puts it, If place-making is a way of constructing the past, a venerable means of doing human history, it is also a way of constructing social traditions and, in the process, personal and social identities. We are, in a sense, the place-worlds we imagine. Based on the aforementioned concepts and principles, the government of Canada built Ottawa’s Confederation Square. It is perhaps the product of a century of nation-making, capital-making and city making. In the same manner, it is the best example of what Basso (1996) referred to as place-making in order to concretize the social values that remain uniquely to the Canadians, in order to establish their national identity. The Confederation Square in Ottawa then houses two powerful symbols of national commitment: the National War Memorial as well as the so-called Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Confederation Square also reveals the constitutional origins (Gordon and Osborne 2004) of the Canadian nation state as it stands right next to the Parliament buildings. Moreover, its location is also highlighted by the presence of the statues of the nation’s founding fathers. More or less, it is not just the main attraction of Ottawa’s downtown (Gordon and Osborne 2004). But it is more importantly, perceived as the symbolic center of an imagined and performed Canada. Basically, the National War Memorial and the tomb of the unknown soldier reflect the military history of Canada, especially the side of the English-Canadians. Although according to Kaplan (1994), that the English-Canadians have no pantheon of heroes to boast of, they significantly value statues, museums and other displays which reflect the coming of their ancestors into the Canadian nation-state. On the other hand, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in its displays, recognizes the plurality of the Canadian society, as it reflected the government’s commitment to the country’s multicultural policy (Stokes-Rees 2007). This is basically the 1971 Multiculturalism Act of the country which allowed for the division of the citizens into cultural groups. The release of this act basically recognized the freedom of all the members of the society to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage, Stokes-Rees (2007) discusses. Because of this, Canada was seen to be a cultural mosaic where all cultural groups coexist peacefully with each other. This step was taken as the government believed that it is through the promotion of ethnic harmony that cultural fragmentation would be avoided. Without a doubt, the Canadian Museum of Civilization has played a very important part in terms of developing the national identity of Canada, wherein two groups could exist peacefully side by side (Stokes-Rees 2007). It is because of this then that it plays a very important role in the preservation and promotion of Canada’s heritage, covering that of its people. Like the Smithsonian Museum and the British Museum, the CMC is also a unifying institution despite its unique task of bringing all together the cultures in Canada. Thus, it can not be denied that the Canadian Museum of Civilization is something of great importance in the shaping of Canada’s national Identity. According to Stokes-Rees (2007), this is very evident in the central symbolic motif of the Canada Hall wherein the main narrative of the museum unfolds. In this particular hall, the nation is pictured as a cultural crossroad wherein people from different cultural backgrounds come together in order to produce a diverse national community that possesses its own unique national identity (MacDonald and Alsford 1988, in Stokes-Rees 2007). In the same manner, this particular hall is also said to feature the different cultural groups which are essential to the formation of the so-called “Canadian Mosaic.” These include the following: (1) Basques; (2) Acadians; (3) Metis; (4) Germans; and lastly, (5) the British. This museum then shows that even though many scholars perceive multiculturalism as a threat to homogenization and the development of a strong national identity, the former eventually reinforces it. In fact, the founding director of the museum, George MacDonald, wanted the CMC to become the nation’s symbol, in order to show the entire world its own unique identity (Stokes-Rees 2007). On the other hand, the Confederation Square previously discussed also caters to the same purpose as that of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. It also wishes to reflect the identities of both the French-Canadians and the English Canadians. In fact, Canada’s capital, Ottawa wishes to be turned into the Washington of the north wherein buildings, monuments, ceremonies and other effective agencies of national cohesion would be built upon in order to effectively produce their multicultural national identity that the CMC was able to achieve (Gordon and Osborne 2004). This transformation of Ottawa, most especially, the addition of the Confederation Square is seen to be of vital importance in making it a capital rather than just another industrialized Canadian City. The place, according to Gordon and Osborne (2004) is filled with different national symbolic meanings that aim to establish the identity of the country, to stress on the multicultural nature of the Canadian nation-state. The Confederation square houses the Rideau Canal, the Parliament Buildings and the different war memorials that serve as a manner by which the nation building experiences during the Great War are recalled (Gordon and Osborne 2004). Without a doubt, the Confederation Square is one of the means by which Canada was able to put concretize its heritage in order to significantly encourage its citizens to look back to their rich past wherein their nation was built. Through this, the people would then be able to strongly identify with their nation state that is uniquely characterized by multiculturalism; where groups, although possessing different ideologies and cultural backgrounds, coexist peacefully with each other (Stokes-Rees 2007; Gordon and Osborne 2004). Gordon and Osborne (2004) further notes: The recent renovations to the memorial square have improved Confederation Square’s function and symbolic content, but it appears that further significant improvements will be difficult, given the awkward nature of the site. It will never be the single dominant symbolic space of the Canadian capital in the manner of the Mall in Washington. Conclusion The link between national heritage and national identity is very important considering that the former provides avenue in order to strengthen the latter (Kitchen 1999; Crang 1998). As a result, nation-states that are characterized by pluralism make use of distinctive steps in order to enhance their national identity through the use of certain devices that may be linked with the nation’s heritage. However, the case of Canada seems to be very different. Considering the existence of two groups that are ideologically different from each other, the country has taken pluralism into advantage. In fact, it is by using this particular characteristic of their society that they wish to build their own national identity (Cohen 1994). As a result, they believe in the importance in remaking their past in order to establish their national identity efficiently. They recognize the need to establish symbols of their nation’s heritage and culture in order to ensure that the past has been properly remade, in order to develop their citizens’ strong identification with their country. This can be seen in the case of both the Canadian Museum of Civilization as well as the Confederation Square which are living witnesses to the great history of Canada, reflecting its plurality yet using it in order to achieve unity and prevent cultural fragmentation. REFERENCES Banfield, J. 1965. Silent Revolution in Canada. Transition, 22. pp. 44-47. Basso, K.H. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Place: Landscape and Language Among Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of Mexico Press. Cohen, R. 1994. Frontiers of Identity. Harlow: Longman. Crang, P. 1998. Cultural Geography. UK: Routledge. Gordon, D.L.A. and Osborne, B.S. 2004. Constructing National Identity in Canada’s Capital, 1900-2000: Confederation Square and the National War Memorial. Journal of Historical Geography: 30. Graham, B. and Howard, P. 2008. The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity. S: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Kaplan, D. 1994. Two Nations in Search of a State: Canada’s Ambivalent Spatial Identities. Annals of the Association of American Geographers: 84 (4), pp. 585-606. Kitchen, R.1999 Creating an awareness of Others, Geography 84 (1), 45-54 Osborne, B.S. 2001. Landscapes, Memory, Monuments and Commemoration: Putting Identity in Its Place. Commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage for the Ethnocultural, Racial, Religious, and Linguistic Diversity and Identity Seminar. Halifax, Nova Scotia, November 1-2, 2001. Stokes-Rees, E. 2007. We Need Something of Our Own: Representing Ethnicity, Diversity and National Heritage in Singapore. in Amunsden, A.B. and Nyblom, A. (eds). Museums in a Global World. Ryden, K.C. 2000. Writing the Midwest: History, Literature and Regional Identity. Geographical Review: 89 (4), pp. 511-532. Smith, L. 2006. Uses of Heritage. UK: Routlledge. Read More