Heritage and the North

What counts for the communities in this region?

Welcome to the NORTHERN HERITAGE Newsletter and thank you for joining our journey of discovery into the heritage of Prince George and Northern BC.

— I am re-posting this article because I think it is good background for several posts I plan to send out in coming days/weeks about community -- heritage -- values and the process of choosing and defining what “heritage” means to Prince George and the North.

So please read and get ready! —

PS This post came out over two months ago when I had far fewer readers!

PPS I am also overwhelmed at the moment with preparations for my upcoming course at UNBC — the first time I’ve taught Canadian students, first time I’ve taught undergraduates, used Moodle or ventured into the world of “asynchronous online teaching”…. Substack will have to wait for a week or so!

Landscape near Sinclair Mills, east of Prince George

What do we mean by “Heritage”?

I think the first thing we need to do is define exactly what we mean by “heritage” so that we are all talking about more-or-less the same thing(s). Here are three definitions from three different viewpoints:

A global definition from UNESCO —- “Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations.”

UNESCO World Heritage properties and cultural traditions from around the world

Heritage BC states that “many people think of heritage as old buildings, however, heritage is whatever a community, past or present, values and would like to pass on to the future, regardless of age or vintage. It can be a place, a landscape, a cultural practice or a language, to name a few.”

Barkerville’s Chinatown

The First Nations understanding of “heritage”, given in the Report on First Peoples’ Cultural Council Indigenous Cultural Heritage Forum, is that “in the Indigenous context cultural heritage refers to ideas, experiences, objects, artistic expressions, practices, knowledge and places that are valued because they are culturally meaningful, connected to shared memory, or linked to collective identity. Indigenous cultural heritage is not separate from Indigenous identity and Indigenous life.”

https://www.lheidli.ca/about/ancient-forest/

These definitions overlap, each extending the meaning of heritage in slightly different directions and with varying emphases. But the basics are the same: heritage can be any aspect of life and culture, tangible and intangible, living or dead, in which we find meaning and which, in some way, binds us to people and places.

What heritage is there in a place like Prince George?

This is one of the most fascinating aspects for me about NORTHERN HERITAGE. Just how much “heritage” can there be in a small frontier city only a century old, built over ancient ancestral Lheidli T’enneh lands, based on northern industries and with a small and transient population of only 4700 residents, even at the start of the 1950s?

I confess that I have spent my life living and working in huge cities of extreme antiquity, with historical buildings, crowded bazaars, traditional crafts and skills and ancient places of worship at every corner. Rich in sounds and smells, constant movement and decay, co-existing awkwardly with extreme wealth and globalization.

Prince George and the towns of Northern BC are literally the other side of the world, with heritage that is embedded in nature, less obvious, more of the here-and-now. Heritage that plays the same critical roles but is more difficult to grasp. For me as a heritage professional it poses a new challenge —- and I’m happy that I have you all along for the ride!

Something to think about…

Since coming to Prince George I have met people from an amazing range of backgrounds: recent arrivals from South Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa; third generation Northerners; indigenous entrepreneurs and transplanted Canadians from the Prairies and the Maritimes. All of us contribute to NORTHERN HERITAGE. The challenge is to understand what could possibly be the heritage that we can all share given our disparate origins and life stories.

https://www.princegeorge.ca/community-culture/your-community

Think about this quotation from the Getty Foundation:

“Cultural heritage is made up of the monuments, works of art, and practices that a society uses to define and understand itself and its history. The question of exactly which monuments or practices should be considered cultural heritage evolves as the society changes how it views itself and, perhaps more importantly, how it views its future.”

Prince George is currently reviewing its future by revising its Official Community Plan, a statement of objectives and policies to guide decisions on planning and land-use management in the city —- basically, laying out a map for the city’s future to 2050. The Community’s Vision says that “in 2050, the City of Prince George will be rich in cultural diversity, honour our heritage, and celebrate a high quality of life surrounded by natural beauty” and it states as a specific objective that heritage resources are to be “identified and preserved”.

I think that we can and must do much more than identify and preserve. What we can do and how we can do it will be the focus of many coming newsletters… but for now, something to think about this week………. How can a shared heritage help get us through the challenging times ahead for Northern BC?

Something to do…

Start making a list of NORTHERN HERITAGE and stick it on your fridge! What are the places that give you solace and comfort, buildings that make you smile, views that always draw your eyes, activities that charge your batteries, sights that remind you why you moved North and why you stayed…..

Our lists will soon be part of a bigger project to identify and map NORTHERN HERITAGE for the radical new and slightly scary 21st century!

Wise Words on Heritage

Heritage “is not an inquiry into the past, but a celebration of it ... a profession of faith in a past tailored to present-day purposes’ from David Lowenthal The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History, 1997, page x.