(CS4.3) Decolonizing a Colonial Historic site: Barkerville and Historic Empathy

What does it mean to decolonize a colonial historic site? How does a living history site bring the past to life when the past is not always a safe or happy place? How do you engage visitors with difficult histories while still remaining a fun, exciting vacation destination? Once known as the Valley of the Flags, the restored ghost-town-turned-park of Barkerville provides a venue to for people to learn about both the exciting and the uglier aspects of the history that shaped British Columbia and Canada.
This presentation will outline some of the ways Barkerville Historic Town has had to reconcile with it’s past, present and future. When we began asking ourselves “Is it ethical to celebrate the colonial era?” the answer was not always simple. Museums and heritage sites like Barkerville Historic Town and Park are tied to a legacy of colonial power structures and discriminatory methodologies that have discredited and erased the voices of many people. At Barkerville, we accept that sustainability also means that past practices bear improving, and we must commit to continuously re-examining our values, acknowledging the harms of the past and moving forward along the path to reconciliation. We are making a concerted effort to critically examine our own history, collections, exhibitions, and programs to ensure that everyone feels welcome, safe, and included.
Today, Barkerville’s success is rooted not just in our ability to keep a gold rush era shantytown standing, but in our efforts to create inclusive spaces where staff and visitors with a variety of perspectives and experiences feel a sense of belonging. This presentation discusses how Barkerville worked to collaborate with other organizations in order to create multi-faceted Chinese and Indigenous history programs which pull no punches when it comes to discussing the obvious racism of the early gold rush, and how these have become an integral part of our interpretive message. It also covers how our mining interpretation programs deal directly with the fact that gold seeking has been both heroic and environmentally devastating. Overall, we learn that cultivating humility, listening deeply, and honouring diverse voices help us to remain truthful and relevant in our efforts reserve Barkerville to educate, inspire, and empower generations of visitors with stories from our past.
Join us in sharing some of our successes and challenges as we work to provide historic interpretive historic programming that a prioritizes, above all, historical empathy.