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Thinking Relationally and Pedagogically about Commemoration: A Critical Inquiry into Charlottetown’s Macdonald Statue

Authors

  • Kay Johnson Athabasca University

Keywords:

Commemoration, Settler colonialism, Relationality, Public pedagogy

Abstract

In this article, I provide a critical reading of the now-removed statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. I bring together my own experience visiting the statue with understandings from Indigenous scholarship and public pedagogy theorizing to think about commemorations as public pedagogies that are foremost relational. I consider how the Macdonald statue works narratively, discursively, and as a site of embodied encounter to create a harmful relationality. Thinking relationally, and pedagogically, about colonial statues suggests possibilities not only for understanding how these commemorative practices produce bad relations but also for envisioning and enacting good relations.

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Published

2023-05-01 — Updated on 2023-09-20

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