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Heather Leroux Final by Anne Ottawa: Symbolic Nation and the City Heather LeRoux OTTAWA: SYMBOLIC NATION AND THE CITY CAPSTONE SEMINAR SERIES (Re)Negotiating Artifacts of Canadian Narratives of Identity, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2014. Managing Editor Dr. Anne Trépanier Desktop publishing Shermeen Nizami Proofreading and final edit Emma Gooch and Ryan Lux Editorial Board Dr. Daniel MacFarlane, Amanda Murphy, Sarah Spear, Ryan Lux, Greer, Jessica Helps, Martha Attridge Bufton, Paula Chinkiwsky, Sarah Baker, Heather Leroux, Victoria Ellis, Stephanie Elliot, Emma Gooch, Cassandra Joyce, Brittany Collier, Tiffany Douglas, Anne Trépanier. Guest Editor Dr. Daniel MacFarlane Special thanks Patrick Lyons and Andrew Barrett Copyright Notice © Heather LeRoux, April 2014 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy, or transmission of this publication, or part thereof in excess of one paragraph (other than as a PDF file at the discretion of School of Canadian Studies at Carleton University) may be made without the written permission of the author. To quote this article refer to: ― Heather LeRoux, Ottawa: Symbolic Nation and the City, Capstone Seminar Series, (Re)Negotiating Artifacts of Canadian Narratives of Identity, Volume 4, number 1, Spring 2014, page number and date of accession to this website: http://capstoneseminarseries.wordpress.com 2 HEATHER LEROUX Ottawa: Symbolic Nation and the City Heather LeRoux ABSTRACT Ottawa as a national capital is constantly negotiating its national and local civic identity. Monuments and public art play a role in articulating these identities within the public sphere and are further narrated by the personal use of these spaces by local citizens. This paper will show that although there is a difference between monuments and public art terms of intention and purpose, monuments and public art as they exist within the public sphere are actually one in the same, as they exist as forms which we experience at a local level and can contribute to a multilayered national, local and personal identity. KEYWORDS Ottawa, national, local, identity, monument, art CAPSTONE SEMINAR SERIES (Re)Negotiating Artifacts of Canadian Narratives of Identity, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2014. 3 OTTAWA: SYMBOLIC NATION AND THE CITY Ottawa is a classic Canadian evocation of the river: not as a border, but as a hinge, a highway, a joining. John Ralston Saul1 The idea of Ottawa as a “joining” suggested in the opening quote by John Ralston Saul can be seen as the articulation of Ottawa as the meeting place of two rivers, or two provinces in a physical sense, but also as the meeting place of two forms of collective identity – the national and the local. As a capital city, Ottawa promotes a national identity through the use of symbolic space and the monumentalization of historic moments and people. Within this context, the urban experience of local people is altered in their everyday use of these spaces. How does the promotion of a national identity within the capital override the local? In what ways are the lives of local residents altered within the framework of a capital city? This paper will aim to examine how monument and space simultaneously facilitate both a national and local identity within the national capital region. So, what is a monument? Are monuments only those which are created and narrated by official bodies, or can they be created and re-interpreted at a local or personal level? For the Department of Canadian Heritage, monuments and public art are categorized distinctly from one another. While the difference between monuments and public art is clear in terms of intention and purpose, I would argue that monuments and public art as they exist within the public sphere are actually one in the same, as they both exist as forms which we experience at a local level. I will demonstrate this idea through the discussion of Ottawa as a national capital, Ottawa 1 John Ralston Saul, in Melissa K. Rombout, Ottawa: on display. Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery, 2002. 4 HEATHER LEROUX as a local city, the interplay of national and civic identities in the physical space and the roles of monuments and public art in this interplay of identities. The selection of Ottawa as the national capital of Canada was an event which forever shifted Ottawa’s civic identity. From 1867 onward, the former city of Bytown became the centre of government, shifting the collective identity of those who lived there. It has been noted that former Prime Minister Mackenzie King once stated that Ottawa was, “small and like that of a provincial town, not interesting, but tiresome. Not a pretty place save about the Parliament buildings” (Taylor 142). Similar sentiments about Ottawa have repeated since, as the city is often regarded as mundane, and lacking its own identity. While Ottawa’s local identity may be overshadowed by its national one, the common assertion that it has no strong local identity can and should be challenged. One way to look at this topic is through Ottawa’s built form. The scope of this paper will address Ottawa as it is represented through both national monuments and public art at the local level. In the downtown core, Ottawa is adorned with many monuments and public art projects that narrate our public spaces. Monuments stand as a permanent reminder for a specific person, event or moment and all have importance to the political and historical Canadian narrative. In the context of Ottawa, the monuments which dominate the public sphere aim to represent national themes and people of national significance although they may not always be successful. These monumental forms exhibit national overarching themes that are not always inclusive and moments in time reflective of certain political and often militaristic moments of history. An examination of this topic requires discussion of work already done in this CAPSTONE SEMINAR SERIES (Re)Negotiating Artifacts of Canadian Narratives of Identity, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2014. 5 OTTAWA: SYMBOLIC NATION AND THE CITY field by Brian Osborne, most notably in his article “Landscapes, memory, monuments, and commemoration: putting identity in its Place,” in which he discusses the evolution of identity and place-making through a theoretical analysis of cultural and memory texts in relation to the construction of Canadian national identity in the built form. According to Osborne; In the production of these collective memories, national history is rendered as a mythic narrative acted out on, bounded by, and bounded with, particular places. To this end, history, memory, and identity are constantly being re- negotiated to cultivate a people's identification with the nationalizing-state through foundation myths, heroic narratives, the personification of putative national qualities, and the identification with particular places (46). Other than at Parliament Hill, no place in the nation’s capital exhibits these national ideas more than in Confederation Square, an area defined by the intersection of Wellington, Elgin and Rideau streets and bridging the Rideau Canal. Designated as a National Historic Site in 1984, and inscribed on the Canadian Register in 2009, it is here that you will find the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National War Memorial. In addition to being the site of these important monuments of war, it is also visually significant in the capital as it is bordered by buildings that are of national and local importance, such as the National Arts Centre, Chateau Laurier, the Central Chambers, the Central Post Office and the East Block of Parliament. According to the Statement of Significance, Confederation Square’s importance and value “resides in its role as a national ceremonial site and in its physical manifestation of a city’s beautiful-inspired public space as illustrated by its location in the heart of Ottawa” (Parks Canada). In their article, “Constructing National Identity in the Nation’s Capital,” Brian S. Osborne and David L.A. Gordon have argued that it is the combination of the National War Memorial as a symbolic object and Confederation Square as public 6 HEATHER LEROUX space which is most significant in representing an idea of our national identity in this urban setting (637). Confederation Square, with its triangular formation acting as a bridge, fuses where the downtown core meets Centretown and the Byward Market. These areas are all important to Ottawa’s local identity as these communities are central to the common understanding of the city, and they all converge at this one central point, just east of Parliament Hill. In 2006 an addition was made to the northeast corner of Confederation Square in the form of the Valiants Memorial, which is comprised of nine busts and five statues of men and women who were significant in Canada’s military history.2 The statues featured in the memorial commemorate: Pierre LeMoyne d’Iberville, Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant), Charles-Michel de Salaberry, Laura Secord and General Sir Arthur Currie. The nine busts depicted are: Lieutenant Robert Hampton Gray, Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski, Paul Triquet, Corporal Joseph Kaeble, Louis de Buade, John Butler, Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, Georgina Pope, and Captain John Wallace Thomas. Each of these figures are meant to represent significant moments and groups who were involved in military conflict throughout Canada’s past, but only represent a small geographic part of Canada’s population. Designed by artists Marlene Hilton Moore and John McEwan, the Valiants Memorial was revealed in November of 2006 with the inscription: Nulla dies umquam memori vos eximet aevo (No day shall ever erase you from the memory of time) a phrase taken from The Aeneid by Virgil (Canadian Heritage, The Valiants Memorial). 2 The understanding of Canada as represented in the figures featured at the Valiants Memorial is very broad, as they represent historic people and events from before confederation. CAPSTONE SEMINAR SERIES (Re)Negotiating Artifacts of Canadian Narratives of Identity, Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2014.
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