New Brunswick, 1948) Or Alexander Mackenzie Heritage Trail (BC, 1987)

Marshall McLuhan Salon Botschaft von Kanada | Embassy of Canada | Ambassade du Canada www.mcluhan-salon.de [email protected]

Canadian Cultural Heritage

Heritage means numerous elements to Canadians: the country’s geography, natural and built environments, peoples’ personal and collective traditions and memories, and the physical and immaterial evidence of their history. Canadian heritage can thus be an object in the built environment, such as the Carcross railway station (1910, Yukon), the Bronte Creek Bridge (1936, Oakville, ON) or a neighbourhood such as Gastown in Vancouver; it can be an artifact of moveable cultural property, such as a painting by Tom Thomson, a Mohawk jingle dress, or a Red River cart; or it can be a part of the natural environment, such as Fundy National Park (New Brunswick, 1948) or Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail (BC, 1987). Canadian heritage can also be intangible, as Newfoundland folklore, the language of the Cree, Scottish-style fiddle music from Nova Scotia, or Inuit creation stories.

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. While physical or tangible cultural heritage includes buildings, historic places, monuments and artifacts, intangible cultural heritage includes social values and traditions, customs and practices, aesthetic and spiritual beliefs, artistic expressions, languages and other aspects of human activity.

Tangible and intangible cultural heritage must be looked at concurrently, for material culture can only be understood and appreciated in the context of the appropriate knowledge of the natural world, with all the narratives that come with it. Cultural heritage is therefore of immense historical, cultural and social importance; its significance can be interpreted against the backdrop of socioeconomic, political, ethnic, religious and philosophical values of a particular group of people. Cultural heritage is also valued for its education aspect, as it informs and educates local, regional and international communities, not only about the past, but also about the present and future of peoples and societies associated with the respective site or element. Cultural heritage and its institutions and organizations enable people to discover the country’s diverse heritage and help Canadians know who they are and what brings them together.

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Marshall McLuhan Salon Botschaft von Kanada | Embassy of Canada | Ambassade du Canada www.mcluhan-salon.de [email protected]

Canadian Heritage Institutions

One of the most important national government agencies concerned with the protection and presentation of nationally significant examples of natural and cultural heritage is Parks Canada. Established in 1911, Parks Canada currently manages 42 National Parks, 167 of more than 950 National Historic Sites, three National Marine Conservation Areas, and Pingo National Landmark (NWT). Since its establishment in 1933, the Department of Canadian Heritage of the Government of Canada also administers a number of heritage policies and programs, including the Canadian Heritage Information Network, the Virtual Museum of Canada, and the Canadian Conservation Institute, promoting awareness, appreciation and protection of Canada’s rich and multifaceted heritage.

Canada's heritage institutions – including heritage sites, museums, galleries, archives, libraries, zoos and botanical gardens – are an important part of the country's culture. There are roughly 2,500 such institutions in Canada. Together, these institutions welcome more than 58 million visitors per year. Canada's archives, libraries and museums are the custodians of Canadians' collective memory as well as their natural and cultural heritage. These heritage institutions enable the Canadian public and visitors to learn more about Canada, its history and achievements, the rich traditions of its indigenous people and its many ethnic groups. Thus, heritage institutions are true windows to the events and the people who have shaped and are shaping Canada.

Heritage Conservation

Because of its significance, it is important to protect and preserve cultural heritage from any environmental or human agent that threatens to destroy it, and increase the understanding and awareness of heritage. This process of heritage conservation encompasses the identification, protection and promotion of cultural heritage.

In order to identify and list properties of cultural value in an inventory like the Ontario Heritage Bridge List, different criteria are used in the evaluation of properties. The largest single inventory list in Canada is the Canadian Inventory of Historic Buildings, which, under Parks Canada’s administration, has information on more than 200,000 pre-1914 buildings across the country. 2 / 9

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Protection means the administration under which a property is managed or maintained and all interventions, i.e. all changes to build heritage through preservation and restoration. In order to guide these changes, conservation principles have been developed and a number of agencies established, among them the Association for Preservation Technology (1969), the Heritage Canada Foundation (1973), the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (1974), and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Canada (1975). Finally, promoting cultural heritage is important to raise awareness for cultural heritage and an understanding for conservation. Events such as Heritage Day, awards, walking tours, exhibitions, public lectures, and publications are different means to reach out to a wide public audience and inform them about the identification, protection and promotion of cultural heritage.

History of Heritage Conservation in Canada

Until the early 20th century concerted heritage conservation activities were relatively rare in Canada. While the conservation (“preservation” in the USA) of nature started to develop as early as the 17th century, the first national park being established in 1885, it took long-time initiatives such as the creation of the Royal Society of Canada’s Committee for the Preservation of Scenic and Historic Places in Canada (1900) and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (1919) to give structure and voice to heritage activists. These first steps were followed by the creation of house museums such as the William Lyon Mackenzie House in Toronto and the preservation of hitherto unrestored former military sites such as Fort York.

With increasing scholarly interest in early architecture in the 1920s and 1930s, the public started to become more and more interested in heritage buildings. It took more than twenty years, though, that the government passed the Historic Sites and Monuments Act (1953) to permit designation of architecturally significant buildings as national historic sites. Until that time, buildings were generally not thought to have heritage value unless associated with important historical figures or events. Starting in the 1950s, major heritage reconstructions became popular, instigating a new era in heritage conservation with a didactic, palpable bent largely missing from the previous era. Especially during the 1960s and 70s, many outdoor museums were created, where visitors could walk among restored buildings and modern replicas while costumed interpreters demonstrate the tasks of everyday life in former days. While some places like Upper Canada Village (ON) and Kings 3 / 9

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Landing (NB) were created by moving authentic buildings to new locations, others like the Fort Macleod Museum (AB) and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons (ON) were completely reconstructed. Large-scale heritage restorations and reconstructions like Louisbourg (NS) and Dawson (YT) were based on extensive research by historians, archaeologists, architects and engineers who tried to portray Canada’s past as conjecture-free as possible.

The 1970s marked the beginning of a dramatic change in heritage conservation. The private business sector began to recognize that there could be social, civic and financial value in heritage conservation, and entire historic urban districts such as Yorkville in Toronto, Vieux Montréal, the Exchange District in Winnipeg, and Market Square in Saint John (NB) were redeveloped, largely through private investment.

In 1976, Canada moved onto the world stage of heritage conservation. By signing the 1972 UNESCO Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the federal government committed itself to protecting world heritage sites, and implied that the highest standards of conservation would be followed.

Since then, the scope of heritage conservation has widened considerably. Today, it includes "vernacular" buildings and industrial sites, neighbourhoods and historic districts, and cultural landscapes. Alternative notions of heritage, such as the West Coast Native concept that the skill to create a totem pole may be a more important heritage to safeguard than the physical artifact produced, are also stretching long-accepted ideas about heritage conservation.

Cultural World Heritage in Canada

UNESCO World Heritage Sites are the world’s most outstanding attractions, the greatest cultural and natural sites on earth, contemporary tourism magnets and national icons. Since 1978, six cultural heritage sites in Canada have been considered of outstanding universal value for humanity and inscribed on the World Heritage List. These sites are L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site (1978), Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump (1981), SGang Gwaay (1981), the Historic District of Old Québec (1985), Old Town Lunenburg (1995), and Rideau Canal (2007).

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L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland is the location of the earliest known European settlement in North America and represents a unique milestone in the history of human migration and discovery. The site is marked by archaeological remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking colony, comprising three timber-and-sod longhouses and five smaller buildings.

Artifacts found at the site consist of tools used for iron work, carpentry and boat repair, and of common everyday items. These excavations provide detailed information on the settlement, implements and lifestyle of the occupants, as the presence of a bone knitting needle suggests the presence of women.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (or estipah-skikikini-kots in Blackfoot) in the Porcupine Hills of southwestern Alberta is the biggest, oldest and best-preserved buffalo jump in North America. For thousands of years, the bison provided the Aboriginal peoples of North America’s Great Plains with many of life’s requirements – meat for food, hides for clothing and shelter, sinew, bone and horn for tools, and dung for fires. The buffalo jump was the principle means of killing large numbers of bison, where herds were stampeded over cliffs and butchered at the bottom. This landscape is an outstanding illustration of subsistence hunting techniques and the way of life of Plains people.

The village of SGang Gwaay Ilnagaay (Nan Sdins/Ninstints), located on SGang Gwaay (Anthony Island) at the Haida Gwaii archipelago (Queen Charlotte Islands, BC), bears unique testimony to the traditional culture and society of the Haida. For thousands of years the Haida have been living on the island, and the village was occupied until 1880. While much of the village’s structures have been consumed by age and the elements, the remains of ten large cedar long houses and 32 carved mortuary poles illustrate the art and way of life of the Haida based on fishing and hunting, commemorate the power and artistry of a rich and vibrant society, and offer a visual key to their oral traditions.

A coherent and well preserved urban ensemble, the Historic District of Old Québec is an outstanding example of a fortified colonial town. The district, including the citadel, the Upper City defended by walls with bastions, and the Lower City with its harbour and old quarters, illustrates one of the major stages of the colonization of the Americas by Europeans. Québec (from the Algonquin word Kébec, meaning “where the river narrows”) was founded by Samuel de Champlain, a French explorer, diplomat and “The Father of New France”, in 1608, at the site of an abandoned Iroquoian settlement called Stadacona and served 5 / 9

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as the capital of New France and after 1760 of the new British colony.

Old Town Lunenburg is an outstanding example of the British colonial policy of creating new settlements by imposing a pre-designed “model town” plan on whatever tract of wilderness it was the King’s pleasure to colonize. The settlement was created in 1753 as the home for 1,453 Protestant German, Swiss and French colonists. The model town was an important aspect for the British to provide the functional space thought necessary for the efficient working of a colony. Lunenburg incorporated all the principles of this plan: geometrically regular streets and blocks, the allocation of public spaces, fortifications, and a distinction between urban and non-urban areas.

The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century construction covering 202 km of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa to Kingston, is the best-preserved example of a slackwater canal in North America. It was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States contested for control of the region. Supervised by Lieutenant Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers Corp, construction started in 1828. By November 1831 the canal had essentially been completed with 47 masonry locks and 52 dams, creating one of the greatest engineering feats of the century. The heritage site includes all the main elements of the original canal, and an ensemble of fortifications, including Fort Henry in Kingston.

Summary

Canada’s commitment to the conservation of its cultural heritage has become increasingly significant throughout the past decades. Cultural heritage such as national historic sites and other tangible and intangible heritage elements are of profound importance; they bear witness to Canada’s defining moments and illustrate its human creativity and cultural traditions. They tell a unique story, part of the greater story of Canada, contributing a sense of time, place, and identity, to people’s understanding of the country as a whole.

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Marshall McLuhan Salon Botschaft von Kanada | Embassy of Canada | Ambassade du Canada www.mcluhan-salon.de [email protected]

What you can do!

1. Find all Canadian UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites on a map of Canada.

2. Define the terms tangible and intangible heritage.

3. Make a list of all tangible and intangible heritage elements mentioned in the text.

4. What does heritage conservation mean? Explain the term.

5. Choose one of the heritage sites or objects mentioned in the text and find more information about it on the internet.

6. Name some agencies that have been involved with heritage conservation in Canada. Try to find out more information about them.

7. Summarize the significance of Cultural World Heritage sites in Canada.

8. Choose one cultural heritage site in Canada. What do you learn from if about Canadian history?

9. Make a presentation of a cultural heritage site of an ethnic group. What does it tell you about the history and way of life of this group?

10. Create a heritage gallery of Canada in class. Prepare a poster for one cultural heritage site in Canada, including photos and texts. Introduce your classmate to the site. Work alone or in pairs of two.

11. Find out when and how Heritage Day is celebrated in the various provinces of Canada.

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Marshall McLuhan Salon Botschaft von Kanada | Embassy of Canada | Ambassade du Canada www.mcluhan-salon.de [email protected]

Links

Canadian Conservation Institute http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/

Canadian Heritage Information Network http://www.chin.gc.ca/

Canadian Museum of Civilization/Canadian War Museum present online exhibitions, games and fun activities, teachers’ resources and lesson plans http://www.civilization.ca

Department of Canadian Heritage of the Government of Canadia http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1266037002102/1265993639778

Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/bc/gwaiihaanas/index.aspx#

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre http://www.head-smashed-in.com/

The Canadian Encyclopedia feature articles on heritage conservation, conservation movements and http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com

L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx

Parks Canada offers a collection of links of Canadian cultural heritage http://www.pc.gc.ca/culture.aspx

Project for the Protection and Repatriation of First Nation Cultural Heritage http://www.law.ualberta.ca/research/aboriginalculturalheritage/index.htm

The Heritage Canada Foundation http://www.heritagecanada.org/

Town of Lunenburg http://www.explorelunenburg.ca/ 8 / 9

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Virtual Museum of Canada http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/

Credits

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