No real purpose in removing the exhibit
We remove statues of symbols and persons that took place in the destruction and genocide of some countries. It is often mentioned that they should not be destroyed, but placed in a museum, where people can be educated on what happened.
When we remove these symbols, personal figures and other displays from the museum, where do we go to learn those lessons of the past?
Old Town can serve a purpose, even if it’s repurposed to show the true story: People murdered, raped, forced off land, houses burned, and this built in its place. Imagine that diorama.
Pretending it never happened serves no purpose. It just makes it easier to live with the guilt.
Mark Dickerson
Victoria
Where will cancel culture finally come to an end?
As another Canadian institution undergoes a shift in its presentation of our shared history I am left wondering what, if anything, will be left when social activists are done with their various agendas.
So far they have vandalized statues, cancelled the legacies (both good and bad) of past leaders, and now the Royal B.C. Museum appears to be in the process of erasing the past and replacing it with a version of history that is more in agreement with the cancel-culture movement.
How much longer will our flag fly at half mast in some sort of national display of sackcloth and ashes?
I think most Canadians are smart enough to understand that Indigenous peoples were and continue to be horribly mistreated by our government, but as Canadians, we have also done some wonderful things that we can all be proud of.
Historical revisionism is as blindly misguided as it is destructive, and we will end up as an even more divided society where nothing gets done and no one aspires to achieve great things.
Len Dafoe
Nanoose Bay
Next, they will go after Barkerville
One of my favourite places to go when my children were small was the free exhibits at the provincial museum.
We would sit in the train station listening to the telegraph click away while waiting for a steam train to rumble by without stopping to pick us up. I have gently aged in that station as my great-grandchildren have now become equally fascinated.
Sadly, it looks as if the train station will be gone for future children.
I also expect that the next real-life exhibit on the chopping block will be the historic town of Barkerville. I suppose they will be calling on folks to return all of the gold so they can return the ingots to the shafts.
Dennis Robinson
Saanich
Now, about the ‘Royal’ in the museum’s name
Now that our provincial museum has decided to embark upon a policy of decolonization and anti-racism through the elimination of several long-standing displays of settler history in B.C., maybe it is also time for a change in that institution’s name that is more in keeping with modern values.
The “Royal” imprimatur, given in 1987 (ancient history in terms of progressive society), is unavoidably evocative of the very colonial history from which the museum seems eager to distance itself and likely causes discomfort and even offence to some racialized Canadians whose ancestors suffered under the policies of the Crown.
To decolonize an institution while retaining the title of the authority which carried out the colonizing seems awkward, to say the least.
Richard Lambert
Victoria
Remove the offensive, keep our Old Town
I was stunned to read the proposed closure of the third floor of the Royal B.C. Museum could be for some years.
As visitors to Victoria, my family and I used to frequently visit the museum to “feel” the experience of early settlers in the Old Town.
It was never the inanimate artifacts of the rest of the museum. Those were of interest, but they were not the attraction.
Yes, remove the offensive representation of Indigenous history, but don’t close the entire third floor.
Michael Rogers
Nanaimo
It’s the destruction of a popular attraction
I have visited museums all over the world, and my usual habit is to walk through them at a slow walking pace, finding the multitudes of artifacts from long ago interesting but just not fascinating enough to spend a lot of time on.
I have never been in a museum like the Royal B.C. Museum. Its Becoming B.C. Gallery is amazing and one of a kind.
Even after many visits, I always stop in the train station and wait for the next train to pass through. I stop in the old theatre and watch a silent film from long ago.
My kids and grandkids have loved going there over the years. The First Peoples Gallery is also wonderful. Even before I moved to Victoria, every trip here included a visit to the museum.
So now one of the best-loved tourist attractions in Victoria is to be destroyed. I just can’t imagine that whatever takes its place will have a fraction of its charm and uniqueness.
How sad.
Gwen Isaacs
Victoria
Museum directors, hang your heads in shame
I am appalled at the proposed destruction of the museum’s excellent diorama, painstakingly created many years ago depicting immigrant life in the towns and resource extraction settlements throughout B.C. in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In no way, shape or form does this exhibit show anything but the truth about a settler’s life back then in those places.
How is the era displayed inaccurately? Is there an untruth that needs to be corrected? Did women not wear those clothes? Did men not use those tools? Were these not the mines and houses that existed then? The exhibit merely shows what was, without fear or favour.
The closure of this exhibit is a meaningless pandering to a small special-interest group.
If you wish to create an larger exhibit that shows the way of life for Indigenous peoples, by all mean do so; I would be the first in line to pay to see it.
Let’s face it; the two solitudes in B.C. were pretty separate at the time. But to dismantle a lovely work of art because a few people feel offended is not only ill-conceived political correctness, it is bad history and bad curatorship.
The board of directors of the Royal British Columbia Museum should hang their heads in shame at the way they have been manipulated.
David Hansen
Victoria
Explain the reasons why some items do not work
I agree with the plan to redo the third floor of the museum, but I would like to see some of the current items included with an explanation as to why they are no longer appropriate.
Janice Sexton
Vancouver
Important part of B.C. history shown
As a recent immigrant (1967 — not a settler!) I am deeply disappointed in the decision to close the finest exhibit in the museum.
The Vancouver ship and the village with the blacksmith’s shop were a delight to our children and myself.
The exhibit shows an important part of our history and should be retained, or is only the history of five to six per cent of our total population worthy of keeping?
John M. Taylor
Victoria
For many, many years, my favourite exhibit
I understand how certain exhibits of the Becoming B.C. gallery might be considered problematic or colonialist, but I don’t think it is really necessary to close and redo the entire third floor of the Royal B.C. Museum.
I might be biased because the Old Town has been my favourite exhibit since I was a kid (among other things, as a kid, I used to like sitting in the replica of the train station and pretend to be waiting for the train) but I still think the Old Town section of the gallery should be left alone.
Emma Dingman
Victoria
Wondering about what is driving us
Another example of woke cancel culture. Are we all going mad?
Michael Megson
Victoria
Evaporating traffic is not guaranteed
Re: “No need for peer review, we have our opinions,” letters, Oct. 29.
I took the advice of the letter-writer by Googling “traffic evaporation” and perused several interesting articles, familiarizing myself with such concepts as “induced demand” and “the Braess paradox.”
What struck me was that most of the examples cited referred to major metropolises whose centres had been severed by intrusive freeways designed to handle through traffic or ancient cities such as Oxford and Cambridge, which were never expected to handle modern-day traffic.
Restricted access for vehicular traffic and pedestrianization schemes made these cities far more pleasant places, and the data did indicate that it resulted in little or no increased congestion elsewhere. On the other hand, some of the articles included cautionary statements such as “there were strong variations on this effect depending on the local context” and “it cannot be asserted that every proposal for giving more road space to buses, cyclists or pedestrians will be problem-free.”
Traffic management is not based on an exact science like climatology or immunology as the writer implied.
In their zeal to embrace the latest theories in traffic management, I trust that city planners will keep in mind local circumstances and geography. Victoria is not burdened with freeways and ring roads, and it does not have traffic passing through en route to somewhere else.
I don’t think anyone could claim that traffic on Cook Street has evaporated since the closure of Vancouver Street.
John Weaver
Victoria
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