ICOM International Council of Museums - International Institute for ...

other side of the equation, there were those that accumulated wealth by acquiringproperty made cheap from bank foreclosures and tax sales, and ‘rum running’ fromCanada to the United States during prohibition. Even some building projects wentahead during tough times, while others were delayed. A somewhat incongruous displayunit features a hairdressing salon replete with a permanent wave / hair curlingcontraption, a hair dryer, and ‘tools of the trade’.“War” (referring to World War II) is represented by various units on such subjects asthe wartime housing crisis, women’s help in and service to the war effort, and theaffects of the war on the ‘home front’. A large unit with display cases, reconstructionsand photographic blowups, address the vibrancy of Vancouver’s Powell Street with itssizeable Japanese population, with looks at the Maikawa department store, Japanesefood and businesses, including “Sewing for a Living”. The unit also addresses the longbattle for the just treatment of Japanese Canadians, including their service in the war,their lack of the right to vote, their treatment as enemy aliens which resulted in thembeing “Uprooted, Looted, and Interned” in camps in the interior of British Columbia, andthe restrictions they continued to endure even after the war ended.Even though both ‘sets’ of permanent exhibition galleries (the 1950s / 1960s-1970s,being one, and, the 1900s-1910s / 1020s-1940s being the other) differ in design style,both have some important features in common. The thematic contents of both arehighly selective and by consequence, exclusionary. This fragmentation stems from thepredisposition of the museum and its personnel towards perceptions of what isimportant or worthy of presentation. These presentations are anecdotes of events fromthe past that are meant to evoke an ‘informed’ but nostalgic response from themuseum’s visitorship.In addition, given that Vancouver is one of the most culturally diverse cities in NorthAmerica, no sense of this can be gleaned from the first set of exhibition galleries, andwhile some mention is made of the Chinese population and there are minor referencesto the East Indian minority, there is no acknowledgement of the local First Nations(Aboriginal) peoples or of any other minority peoples of European, Latin American,African, or Asian descent who, since the end of World War II, have been a growing partof the fabric of the society. Further, local First Nations do not figure in the second set ofexhibition galleries except for a brief label indicating that work is underway with thesepeoples for some inclusion in the 1910s-1920s gallery. Although there is an attempt toincorporate other voices, the museum continues to pursue its own predisposition in itscourse of promoting a linear version of ‘history’ over other forms of memory.It is evident that the ‘history’ that is represented in museums is distinct from anyrigorous precepts of history. It is the reality that ‘historical’ representation in museumsis truly a form of nostalgia such that peoples of a locale can find satisfaction ‘identifying’with the past on familiar terms. History requires a steady application of cause andeffect to explain the manifestation of an achieved end, or as the world knows, it isvictors who write histories, while it could be said that it is museums that house the‘spoils’ of the past.331