New Narratives of Work: Increasing Worker and Community Participation at Ontario Worker Heritage Sites
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New Narratives of Work: Increasing Worker and Community Participation at Ontario Worker Heritage Sites by Philip Rich A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Philip Rich, May, 2021 ABSTRACT NEW NARRATIVES OF WORK: INCREASING WORKER AND COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AT ONTARIO WORKER HERITAGE SITES Philip Rich Advisors: University of Guelph, 2021 Dr. Alan Gordon, University of Guelph Dr. Rob Kristofferson, WLU This thesis explores how historians can support workers and communities in the process of recovering narratives of work in deindustrialized contexts. Public history and heritage are powerful tools for preserving and presenting Ontario’s labour history, as well as organizing labour movements. However, this needs to be done in a transparent and meaningful way. Participatory models of ‘doing’ history are key to democratizing the history-making process. Building better methods for participation in public history is crucial to involving communities in the history-making process and allow for meaningful educational opportunities that support workers and communities through intense changes that are a result of deindustrialization. By examining three existing sites of worker heritage in Ontario it is evident that they have the potential to develop immersive forms of history that are of value when advocating for heritage that prioritizes labour history in Ontario. Involved, community-led approaches to public history and heritage can help them reach this potential. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to Dr. Alan Gordon and Dr. Rob Kristofferson, as well as several other professors in the Guelph history department, for their guidance throughout the research and writing process. I’ve learned a lot from them, and their work has been a significant inspiration to me. I take sole responsibility for any errors and interpretations in this thesis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2 Immigrant Workers and Community Narratives of Work: A Memorial to Commemorate Chinese Railroad Workers ........................................................................................................................ 18 2.1 Commemorating Immigrant Workers in a Changing Urban Landscape......................................... 18 2.2 Recognizing the Workers of the Canadian Pacific Railroad ........................................................... 23 2.3 Heritage, Resistance, and Community Action ................................................................................ 43 Chapter 3 Canoe Building and Narratives of Work: Worker Heritage and Expressions of Living History at Fort William Historical Park ................................................................................................................. 50 3.1 Canoes, Work, and Canadian National Identity .............................................................................. 50 3.2 Fort William Canoe Program: Expressions of Living History in Ontario Parks and Historical Sites ............................................................................................................................................................... 59 3.3 Interpretations of Manual Labour and ‘Performance’ at Living History sites ................................ 73 3.4 Living History, Labour, and New Educational Models .................................................................. 83 Chapter 4 Community Archives and Narratives of Participation: Grassroots archiving, participatory history, and the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre .................................................................................. 86 4.1 Community Archives and Participation in Public History Projects ................................................ 86 4.2 Labour Archives and Hamilton’s Workers Arts and Heritage Centre: Presenting Industrial History in North America ................................................................................................................................... 94 Chapter 5 Conclusion: New Narratives of Work in Ontario ................................................................... 100 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 102 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1.1: Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial (1989) …………………………………………….21 Figure 2.1: Drawing of Canoe Interpreter at Fort William………….…………………….…………..69 Chapter 1 Introduction In the middle of a pandemic, I began apprenticing as a heritage stone mason. It was unintentional – a mason needed a labourer, and I needed more work for the summer. I was on a leave of absence from studying history and heritage and the masonry was a good break. I had spent a lot of time in my life working as a manual labourer – construction, farming, landscaping, gardening, janitor, a bike mechanic in greasy shops – and I had spent a lot of time reading and writing about work in my previous studies. But the heritage masonry was different. It focused on bridging the present and the past; intentionally making new renovations look old and learning historical labouring skills in the process. This was an idea I had been exploring for this project earlier in the year and my advisor had encouraged me to explore notions of participatory learning in history. The connection became concrete as I learned to build stone walls, point existing walls, and colour mortar to resemble decades old mortar and stone. ‘Heritage Grey’ is the preferred term, I learned. I was learning about history and work in Ontario by actively participating in the historical process and developing an understanding of how we pass on knowledge, skills, and traditions, and why we think that it is important that we do. Work can help us understand our communities even as they change. It can be a powerful tool for organization and education. It is also important how we present historical narratives of work so that they are not lost or ignored. This thesis investigates interpretations of labour at heritage sites in Ontario and how work is represented in public history projects. It examines different examples of labour in Canada’s history. It has stories, but it also connects methods of public history, education, and the importance of community as landscapes change. The value of analyzing case studies of worker heritage at Ontario historical sites is to contrast the wide variety of forms that the public preservation of labour histories can take, and how public historians, labour historians, labour 1 movements, and communities can properly develop modern education programs in Ontario. In Canada, histories of labour are often underrepresented in modern instances of public history and commemoration – especially compared to more developed examples of worker heritage in the United States and Europe. Using a historical methodology, my research investigates the development of sites that publicly commemorate narratives of work in Ontario to determine the roles that institutions, workers, academics and the public play in shaping the final versions of these sites of commemoration, education, and even leisure. Examinations of three heritage sites that depict different periods of labour in Canadian history will tell distinct stories of de-industrialization, work, and leisure. Additionally, the sites tell these stories through different forms of public history – each with their own set of advantages and inadequacies for communities. The three historical sites that I have identified include a traditional monument, a living history depiction of work and artisanship, and a worker’s museum. When contrasted, they present the differences between traditional commemoration that have guided understandings of history and heritage in Canada throughout the 20th century – such as monuments and standard living depictions of history – and more involved methods of public history like actively participating in living history programming or maintaining community archives. Each site has the potential to develop immersive forms of history that are of value when advocating for commemoration that prioritizes labour history in Ontario. Building better methods for participation in public history is crucial to involving communities in the history- making process, and the heritage process can be therapeutic for working people following the sudden changes brought about by deindustrialization and its dislocations. The first case study will examine the process of creating the Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial in downtown Toronto. This example communicates a more industrial form of labour 2 than the artisanal depictions of labour that are the focus of Fort William.