The Royal British Columbia Museum announced that soon the insidious shrine to colonialism known as B次元官网网址淏ecoming B.C.B次元官网网址� will be dismantled to aid the cause of B次元官网网址渄ecolonization.B次元官网网址�
This 12,524-square-foot exhibit B次元官网网址� thatB次元官网网址檚 been allowed to fester steps away from the heart of our provincial government B次元官网网址� traces the history of British Columbia over the last 200 years. Its centerpiece being a replica cobblestone street lined with 20 historical display buildings (a Gold Rush-era hotel, a functioning silent movie theater, etc.) that are meant to portray life in Victoria during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As will the B次元官网网址淔irst PeoplesB次元官网网址� exhibit (an exhibit meant to display Native American art and pre-colonial culture) be removed as per the museumB次元官网网址檚 stand against colonization.
What will replace these exhibits? We donB次元官网网址檛 know, they say we might not know for years. But it doesnB次元官网网址檛 matter. For this is hollow; this is colonist back-slapping; this is a merely symbolic gesture; this, in short, is not enough.
For everything about the museum is colonial. The concrete, steel, and glass of which itB次元官网网址檚 made are the result of technologies brought to B次元官网网址淏ritish (as they so arrogantly called it) ColumbiaB次元官网网址� by the colonizers. Even the very concept of a museum was brought by the colonizers. Worst of all, just look at the name: Royal British Columbia Museum. B次元官网网址淩oyalB次元官网网址� referring to the imperialist leadership of the colonizers; B次元官网网址淏ritishB次元官网网址� to the homeland of the colonizers; B次元官网网址淐olumbia,B次元官网网址� the feminine of B次元官网网址淐olumbusB次元官网网址�; and B次元官网网址淢useum,B次元官网网址� from the colonizer language of English via Latin (the language of those other gluttonous European colonizers: the Romans), from the Greek (colonizers again) B次元官网网址淢ouseion,B次元官网网址� or B次元官网网址渢emple of the Muses;B次元官网网址� such as that famously set to flame in Egypt, and better known today as the Library of Alexandria. A house of treasures built - like our RBCM - by colonizers in a foreign land, and which now provides a fiery beacon to light the way for our own modern B次元官网网址淢ouseion.B次元官网网址�
This monument to colonialism must be burnt to ash and nothing but, if ever we are to call ourselves true believers in the cause of social justice.
Elijah Valkaria
Victoria
