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PURSUITS |W
alking through Curacao’s
harrowing Museum Kura
Hulanda, which chroni-
cles the brutalities of the transat-
lantic slave trade, I felt flooded
with sorrow and a little queasy.
Holding a pair of tiny shackles
made for a child slave, museum
guide Rudolf Allie told me, “Some
people break down in tears when
I explain what happened to slaves
here.” There were piles of shack-
les in the room we’d stopped in, a
whole range of instruments used
to punish slaves and brands used
to sear ownership marks into
their flesh.
I felt a similarly visceral reac-
tion viewing photographs of
laughing Nazis standing before
concentration camp smoke-
stacks in the Holocaust hall at the
Canadian Museum of Human
Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, and
seeing at how huge and lethal
looking rubber bullets were at the
Museum of Free Derry in North-
ern Ireland, which documents
Bloody Sunday and the Troubles
that marred the region for so
many years.
Such museums have helped
shape my world view. They re-
mind me of what I have, how for-
tunate I am to be a Canadian (per-
haps a white Canadian not living
in a Northern community would
be more accurate) and what oth-
ers had to fight so hard for. I un-
derstand that not everyone wants
to visit somewhere depressing on
their vacation, but enough of us
do that museums about civil
rights thrive around the world.
And that’s an important and
good thing.
“It’s really important to con-
sider historic and contemporary
issues from multiple perspectives
so we can combat bias and preju-
dice – which we might not even
realize we have until presented
with an alternative view. This is
fundamental to understanding
and promoting human rights,”
says Dr. Jodi Giesbrecht, CMHR di-
rector of research and head cura-
tor. “Throughout history, and
even today, we can see patterns of
denial and minimization of hu-
man-rights atrocities, along with
efforts to silence the survivors
and witnesses. These issues are
not easy or comfortable, but it’s
our role and responsibility to pro-
voke thought and conversation
that leads to education – which is
the most powerful force for hu-
man rights in the world.”
When visiting the CMHR, or
any other museums focusing on
civil rights and social injustice, it
can be shocking to realize that
these awful things happened not
all that long ago – and may still be
happening even if it isn’t on our
doorstep. With so much injustice
going on in the world, and so
many challenges to civil rightsjust across the border, we should
feel uncomfortable.
“It’s important for people to be
aware that human-rights viola-
tions are not confined to the past
or to faraway lands,” Giesbrecht
says. “We try to show that human-
rights challenges are playing out
all around us right now, in our
own communities, in our own
country and around the world.
The global refugee crisis affects
every one of us in some way – and
is becoming increasingly dire for
people in many parts of the
world. As a museum, it is our role
to help people understand what’s
going on, what our responsibili-
ties are as a nation dedicated to
upholding universal human
rights and the importance of tak-
ing action.”
Or put differently: Ideally, vis-
iting places such as the Inquisi-
tion Museum in Cordoba, theApartheid Museum in Johannes-
burg and the National Center for
Civil and Human Rights in Atlan-
ta is just the first step toward feel-
ing greater empathy toward our
fellow humans.
One other important common
thread to these museums is that
they also present narratives of re-
sistance and resilience. They put
names to people who would oth-
erwise be faceless victims, mak-
ing a point of telling individual
stories to show their strength in
the face of hardship.
For those who haven’t had
such a privileged life as mine, and
actually lived through what these
museums present, visiting could,
in some cases, help them to heal.
So could volunteering to guide
visitors through the exhibits.
Jimmy Toye was right there on
Bloody Sunday, and watched two
men die in the streets before him.He volunteers at the Museum of
Free Derry because, “In a few
years, it’ll be 50 years since the
massacre, and soon there won’t
be anyone left to tell these stories
first hand.”
Toye says that he’s shown
many British soldiers – who still
suffer trauma from tours of duty
in Northern Ireland – through the
museum. “Coming back here and
visiting this museum helps them
get over it,” Toye explains, “as
well as helping others learn what
actually happened, and why it
should never be allowed to hap-
pen again.”SpecialtoTheGlobeandMailThewritertravelledcourtesyof
TourismIreland,CuracaoTourist
oardandTourismWinnipeg.
Noorganiôationreviewedor
approvedthisarticle.The Witness Blanket by Carey
Newman (Ha-yalth-kingeme),
seen at the Canadian Museum
for Human Rights in Winnipeg
in 2015, is a 12-metre-long
installation made of more than
800 items collected from the
sites and survivors of
residential schools.
JOHNWOODS/
THECANADIANPRESSAnemotionaljourney
It’sworthvisitingmuseumsthatmakeusthink–andcry,LolaAugustineBrownwrites.Vacationsthatincorporatelearning
aboutthestrugglesofthepeoplearoundyouisthefirststeptowardfeelinggreaterempathyforfellowhumans“
It’s reallyimportant to
consider historic
and contemporaryissues from
multipleperspectives so
we can combat
bias andprejudice.
DR. JODI GIESBRECHT
CANADIANMUSEUMOF
HUMANRIGHTSDIRECTOR
OFRESEARCHAND
HEADCURATOR