The Purpose of a Monument

Public history is, in one aspect, a visible presence of the past in any given community. This can look like signs on old buildings, institutions that allow people to see old relics and committees of people who gather to preserve and discuss the past. However, this is a simplified version of public history that does not address the complexities of communities—like who the authority is, what we should work to remember and how we remember the events we wish to forget.

Adrienne Burk’s article In Sight, Out of View discusses some of these complexities in the context of East Vancouver’s difficult legacy and how they chose to remember it. In this article, the author discusses how the reality of missing and murdered women exists in tandem with the erection of monuments to remember them. To set the scene, the author describes this community as one where a person who is 45 is considered a senior because of the low life expectancy and where 75 women went missing or had been found murdered in less than 15 years (44-46). The monuments were the idea of a group of women whose aim was to place them in dangerous locations as a silent protest against the violence that women endure—but also as something not for themselves but for those who were and are lost (46, 51). This project was called Marker of Change.

When asking ourselves what the purpose of a monument is, we must also ask who the monument serves and who it represents. A monument has the ability to speak for itself—the material, inscription, placement, and design tell a story. It can even talk back against a conflicting narrative, but that does not mean that everyone will like the new narrative…

In this case, some decided to speak against the monuments. Perhaps it was because the women who were responsible for them were not considered to meet the standard of those who should be responsible for erecting monuments. It is my opinion that public history can only function properly if it works to serve the entire community, not just the academics and historical societies. It should represent the issues that plagued that community, and exist as a reminder of things some may wish to forget.

Burk, A. “In Sight, Out of View: A Tale of Three Monuments.” Antipode 38, 1 (2006): 41-58.