The Future of Our Past

as published in The Guardian (Charlottetown) Opinion, Monday, February 11, 2008, p. A7

This is the first in a series of three articles meant to encourage and inform public participation in the Island Heritage Study commissioned by the provincial government. As part of the study, public meetings conducted by The IRIS Group are currently underway.

By Monica MacDonald

What is heritage and why is it important enough for the government of Prince Edward Island to commission a comprehensive study of it?

First, heritage is not history. History can be defined both as the sum of all past events, as well as the written accounts about those events by historians. Heritage, as the provincial government has defined it, is the tangible and intangible remains of our natural and cultural past, like fossils, artifacts and folksongs. Activities of the provincial government in heritage include the preservation and protection of these remains, as well as their interpretation to wider audiences than scholarly history is usually able to reach.

The best of heritage practice does not aim to be celebratory or nostalgic but is analytical and educative, informing the present and even helping us make decisions about the world around us. An exhibition on natural history can illuminate aspects of our ancient past, but can also make us aware of the environmental problems of our own day, and compel us to act. A presentation on the origins of certain cultural or religious rites can reveal that there is often much more behind what is taken for mere custom or tradition. Public spaces where these displays and discussions take place area vital part of a dynamic heritage environment.

Heritage has been important to people as a component of identity. Access to common stories and objects of the past helps to create social cohesion, a connectedness to a group defined in national, provincial, ethnic, or other terms. This can have a dark side if used as a means of exclusion, but it can also empower those whose pasts were hitherto neglected. Until the 20thcentury, for example, with some exceptions, the written and other cultural records of women, Aboriginal peoples, people of non-European descent and the working classes were not deemed as worthy of retention as those of upper-class, white males. Greater attention to this fact in more recent ears allows our archives, museums and libraries to facilitate a wider knowledge of the past and present realities of these groups.

Heritage has an impact on our contemporary lives in other ways. Historians of the Atlantic provinces have long recognized that a common perception of the region as unprogressive, conservative and quaint, is at least partly due to both national and local depictions of our past. Historian Margaret Conrad, for one, believes this has a negative impact on federal public policy concerning the region. As the province with the first female elected premier and the first provincial premier of non-European ancestry in Canada,Prince Edward Island hardly fits this stereotype. But what about our past is nationally known besides the Charlottetown Conference that led to Confederation and the story of the little girl with red braids? Worthy subjects, both, but as students of P.E.I. history well know, there is much more to it than that. In order for the rest of Canada to be aware of this fact, however, we have to be aware of it ourselves.

Heritage is deemed an important part of the tourism industry and indeed, one can speak of heritage itself as an industry. As a way to draw visitors to the Island and a way to create jobs, it is considered part of our economic engine. Entrance or user fees like those charged at historic sites are used to help offset costs in site maintenance, as well as costs associated with efforts in interpretation and education. But we must be vigilant about maintaining commercial activities at a sustainable level and ensure that heritage, as defined in the above terms as far as government is concerned,is supported for its own sake; that it remains a public service and accessible to all as part of our cultural rights.In professional history we have come a long way from the days when our knowledge of the Island’s past was connected primarily to national events at the expense of the regional or provincial, where cultural diversity was unacknowledged and where the “great men, great events” version of history reigned supreme. Governments cannot create policy for history, but they can create policy for heritage. The opportunity now exists for Islanders to help make government responsibility in this area a key aspect of our provincial public policy, and to support it as a vehicle for education about our past,present and future.

Dr. Monica MacDonald is an adjunct professor in Canadian Studies at UPEI and an associate of The IRIS Group, an Island company specializing in public policy research.

More information on the Island Heritage Study and the public meetings is available at http://islandheritagestudy.wordpress.com

The second article in this series on Monday, Feb. 18 will examine the role of museums.

© 2008 The Guardian (Charlottetown). All rights reserved.