Another Roadside Attraction that erases Indigenous people and reinforces colonial righteousness:

the #rewriteBC project

I've been working on a Twitter+ project since 2017 to try to bring some attention to the perpetuation of colonial narratives through public history. The project came about in response to a campaign launched by BC's Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) to update the roadside Stops of Interest that dot BC's highways. When the first refurbished sign went up in my town, Kamloops, I was surprised and disappointed to see that only the paint had been changed. The tired, colonialist story remained: a vague celebration of wild west heritage that continued to ignore and erase Indigenous peoples' roles in history and the building of BC.

At a moment where reconciliation is in danger of becoming little more than a buzzword, I believe British Columbia and other colonial jurisdictions have a real obligation to change the narrative in our public history. Indigenous people and places need to be written back into Canadian heritage. Knowing the truth about what happened between Indigenous people and settlers here is essential to our future, a critical step to righting the balance between us. Not only for the sake of Indigenous people (who already know they've been here the whole time), but for the rest of British Columbians, who've been raised on the settler-first diet of self-serving colonial stories. An understanding of Indigenous peoples’, past and present, and an honest accounting of the EuroCanadian record here are essential grounding for any reconciliation we can hope to achieve.

I wrote about the #rewriteBC project and being a better witness to history for Culturally Modified, here.

Another Dam Treaty_Republic of Archaeology

Architect of Dispossession_Republic of Archaeology

Fight for the Salish Sea_Republic of Archaeology

Brand of Colonialism_Republic of Archaeology

A Capital Theft_Republic of Archaeology

Your uncolonial story_Republic of Archaeology

Colonial history lied_Republic of Archaeology

Loss of the Grasslands_Republic of Archaeology

The Myth Makers_Republic of Archaeology

Battle Bluff_Republic of Archaeology

A Soveriegn Landscape_Republic of Archaeology

The Noose of the Railway Belt_Republic of Archaeology

Nope_Republic of Archaeology

Reserved under the Reservoir_Republic of Archaeology

Rush to the Bottom_Republic of Archaeology

Salmon Under Siege_Republic of Archaeology

Salmon, Copper and Elk_Republic of Archaeology

Settler, Please_Republic of Archaeology

Settling Death's Door_Republic of Archaeology

Train Wrecked_Republic of Archaeology

To the Victor Goes the Signs_Republic of Archaeology

Individual #rewriteBCsigns may be downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes with attribution to Joanne Hammond. Please contact me if you would like to use or reproduce a set for display or distribution.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.