Joint Letter by Union Gallery + Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre + Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Posted: June 15, 2021

“Reconciliation is not an Aboriginal problem; it is a Canadian one. Virtually all aspects of Canadian society may need to be reconsidered.” —Truth and Reconciliation Commission Summary of Calls to Action.

Today we are writing to urge you to reconsider statues and monuments. By reconsidering the role statues and monuments play in upholding—and in many cases constituting—“Canadian values,” we can collectively come to reckon with a problem that haunts Kingston and keeps this place trapped in the trauma of the past.

Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, and Union Gallery ask for a city sanctioned and official removal of the Sir John A. MacDonald Statue at City Park in Katarokwi-Kingston, Ontario.

Statues, such as this one, are designed as vehicles to elevate history and to draw attention to the role of the individual. They act to define what a “great hero” is in perpetuity, and they operate to ensure only singular histories are remembered. As the first Prime Minister of Canada and the architect of the Indian Act, John A MacDonald is a monument to oppression, colonial violence, and genocide. We can no longer glorify him with this statue. We can no longer pretend that there is a singular history that constitutes the Canadian Nation State. We can no longer assume that history is made by individuals. That is a monumental western European concept, which also needs reconsideration.

We have given consideration to the conservative solutions proposed to appease the status quo. We do not believe that a plaque with further information about the man is a suitable solution. We do not believe that a second statue, placed next to the existing one is a suitable solution. We need to reconsider statues and monuments more holistically if we are truly going to foster forms of cultural multiplicity and expression. Furthermore, when public works are placed together they are meant to be seen in conversation with each other. This relationality is not intended to produce a grey zone where one statue somehow neutralizes the other. The solution is to remove the existing monument.

To pretend colonialism is Canada’s past is to ignore the Truth and Reconciliation’s Calls to Action. The discovery of the bodies of 215 children at the Kamloops residential school serves as the most recent reminder of the atrocities committed by the Canadian Nation State as it was constituted by the policies and political work of John A MacDonald and others. Of the thousands of Indigenous children taken hostage, many survived, and many more thrive. Let this be a catalyst for settler allies, our institutions, and our governments to enact the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee and be future oriented in our commitments.

Signed,

Anne-Sophie Grenier, Executive Director Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre

Emelie Chhangur, Director and Curator Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Carina Magazzeni, Director Union Gallery