'Enshrined in Golden Memories': Eastern Ontario's Commemoration of the North-West Resistance, 1885-1939

摘要

This article explores how English Canadians in Eastern Ontario actively participated in commemorating the North-West Resistance by erecting war memorials, stained glass windows, and by writing commemorative poems. Using recent developments in memory studies and the "new imperial history," this study compares the images and symbols presented in these commemorative acts with surviving textual records and ephemera to investigate how English Canadians perceived and remembered the rebellion. This study suggests that the colonization of Aboriginals did not end on the 1885 battlefields, but continued in the commemorative practices of Eastern Ontarians. English Canadians portrayed themselves as inherently "good" Christians that helped define Canada as a nation, and excluded Aboriginals from the commemorative process. In doing so, English Canadians aimed to better participate in the imperial culture of the British Empire.