Introduction

Canadians are not of any one cultural background, race or identity. In fact, Canadians reflect a vast diversity of cultural heritages. This diversity is a result of centuries of immigration. The history of our immigration has played and continues to play a key role in shaping the face of Canadian society. Many of us can trace our origins back to an immigrant past.

Through archaeological studies, it has been established that Aboriginal Peoples have lived on Turtle Island (known as North America today) since 40,000 BC. Long before the arrival of the first Europeans, ancestors of Canada's Aboriginal Peoples migrated across a frozen icepack linking Asia to North America. Their civilization has marked the history of the Pacific Northwest. Then about 500 years ago, the Voyageurs came to explore this great land, opening up the country to migration and settlement.

Our history can be viewed through the prism of how we define who we are, and the values we hold. Simultaneously, the history of Canada is composed of the stories of our unsung heroes, and those seeking opportunity and sanctuary. The 19th century saw the migration of the English, Irish and Scots. In the years before the American Civil War, the Europeans were joined by the thousands of black slaves seeking freedom by following the Underground Railway northward into Canada. After Canadian Confederation in 1867, thousands of Chinese came to seek their fortune in the gold rush, and to build the Canadian Pacific Railway. The 20th century witnessed Canada offering sanctuary to waves of refugees fleeing persecution - Jews (WWII), Hungarians (1956), Czechoslovakia (1968), Indochinese (Vietnam War), Poland (1982-85), Horn of Africa and Middle East (1984 -1990s), and most recently, those fleeing the Balkan conflict. As a result, visible minorities and peoples from elsewhere have become an increasingly important part of our national fabric.

"The history of Canada is the cumulative experience of its constituent peoples….We are the children of the expelled, the persecuted, the abandoned, and the marginal. We are the remnants of empires and the refugees of lost causes…"

Mark Starrowicz, CBC producer, A People's History

From another perspective, and to quote Michael Ignatieff: "History for me is the story of our arguments: French versus English, native-born versus new arrivals, region versus region, rich versus poor, race versus race, religion versus religion. It's also the story of how we manage to resolve them and reconcile the past. But first we need to tell the truth."

What is the truth? That our past history is contentious. It has not been kind, for example, to Native peoples displaced by European settlement or to the Chinese who came as a cheap source of labour. Nonetheless, immigration has populated this country from sea to sea, and has provided this nation with a rich tapestry of cultural heritage.

Culture and Heritage Culture, according to anthropologist Terry McKinley, is the way people live together, interact, and cooperate together. Culture is both complex and multifaceted; in the sense that it refers to how people justify their interactions through a system of beliefs and values. Music, literature and language are outward inclinations of our values. Simultaneously, the arts and humanities are perceived as the vectors of our history, and hence, the signposts of our cultural heritage.

Common Cultural Capital Canada is a country of diverse racial and cultural heritage, and it is this heritage that makes up Canada's common cultural capital. It is also the glue that holds us together as a country. However, in a culturally diverse country as Canada, tolerance and openness in accepting one another as Canadians is essential. This then begs the question, how best to explore the stories of our vast cultural heritage? Heritage is a two way process, in the sense that the present will influence the future, while being influenced by the past. Canada as a nation has been shaped by its collective history, both good and bad. Those who would attempt to dismiss this prevent us from examining our history with honesty. Knowledge leads to understanding and, hopefully, understanding leads to tolerance.

Whose history is Canadian history? Our stories cannot be ignored. "You rarely see people like me in representations in Nova Scotia," said Sylvia Hamilton, an African-Canadian filmmaker. Why isn't Matthew de Costa, a former slave who helped found Port Royal taught in schools?

Ottawa Citizen; October 26, 2002

Culture, Cultural Goods, Trade and Globalization The closing years of the twentieth century has been marked by the expansion of international trade, and the signing of multilateral and bilateral trade agreements for the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to the movement of goods and services. As financial markets transcend national boundaries, and information exchange around the world becomes easier and faster, global markets have emerged for many of the goods and services that are bought and sold in every country by millions of people every day. Cultural goods and services have become part of this free flow across borders. While this has brought a range of choice to peoples everywhere, it also created a dimension of insecurity to Canada's cultural heritage and our cultural industries.

"…As cultures wither away, individuals remain, often shadows of their former selves, caught in time, unable to return to the past, yet denied any real possibility of securing a place in the world whose values they seek to emulate and whose wealth they long to acquire. "Anthropology suggests that when people and cultures are squeezed, extreme ideologies sometimes emerge, inspired by strange and unexpected beliefs."

Wade Davis, Anthropologist and National Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic Society.

It has been suggested that our cultural industries are under siege? Our government recognizes that cultural goods and services are unlike other products in the marketplace. At the same time, the process of globalization can stimulate cultural expression. Artists, regardless of ethnicity and locale, have a need to create, through the prism of their personal and cultural identities. However, the cultural values which traditionally identified and linked peoples and communities together seem to be under assault by changes in society. In these circumstances, questions are raised as how to embrace our nation's cultural diversity with mutual respect and understanding. Take Toronto for example. It has become one of the most diverse cities on this planet. Current demographic trends point to increasing urbanization of people from different places around the world, speaking different languages, holding different points of view and religious beliefs. As societies become more multicultural, indigenous and culturally distinct groups will demand their rights to express and continue to develop their cultures within the wider society of this nation. That means much of this dialogue will take place in urban cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The challenge is, how to create spaces that will foster and promote this dialogue between cultural groups, while allowing these groups to express themselves through language, music, art, and other forms of expression? While diversity of expression is a challenge, moving towards it promotes a sense of shared citizenship, part of the cultural glue that holds us together as a nation.

"Long before the Gap and Starbucks sent Queen Street West spiralling into a retail frenzy, the BamBoo was a rite of passage for city residents and out-of-towners…For 20 years, the BamBoo was the epicenter of reggae, funk, R&B and soul in Toronto. The club opened in August 26, 1983 by Habib and O'Brien, friends who met while working at the CBC, and found they shared in interest in Caribbean culture…The place is often credited with popularizing Pad Thai with the whitebread denizens of Queen West…"

Globe & Mail; October 31, 2002

Canada's multicultural diversity is a result of centuries of immigration. Recent Environics polls reveal that a majority of Canadians believe that Government support of Canada's cultural heritage promotes the sharing of common values, helps solve the problems of racism and prejudice, encourages institutions of Canada to reflect and respect cultural diversity, and enhances the value of Canadian citizenship.[1]

Immigration today continues to play a key role in shaping the cultural character of Canadian society. Simultaneously, culture is recognized as crucial in building the fabric of our society. For many Canadians, this translates into the need to see themselves reflected in their books, magazines, movies, television programs and on the internet. It is these cultural goods and services that convey and construct Canada's cultural values, contribute to our cultural identity and promote social cohesion within Canadian society. Moreover, it is through the production of our cultural goods that we as a country express our heritage such that our cultural industries reap benefits to the local community, Canada and the world at large.

Culture and Aboriginal Peoples Cultural and social identity of Aboriginals everywhere is linked to their language, literature, music, dance, games, handicrafts, architecture, arts, customs, rituals and mythology. In terms of mythology, the world begins with the Creation. Elaborate Creation stories are told all over the hemisphere by Aboriginal peoples, and provide the best means in understanding indigenous views and traditions. Also of importance is the nature of the sacred, human relationships with the environment, and individual responsibility to the community.

"It is essential to know and understand the deeply spiritual special relationship between indigenous peoples and their land as basic to their existence as such and to all their beliefs, customs, traditions and culture."

J. Martinez Cobo, United Nations Special Rapporteur (1987).

The International Decade of the World's Indigenous People was officially launched in December 1994 to recognize the contribution of aboriginal cultures to the universal culture. Almost a decade later, cultural challenges still remain regarding cultural property rights, preservation of languages, traditional knowledge, modernity, and identity in the context of globalization.

In the context of globalization, the world's population of indigenous peoples number some 350 million individuals representing 6,000 languages and cultures, spanning more than 70 countries on every continent. Half of those Native languages are no longer taught to children, and only 3,000 exist and are spoken today. By the end of this decade, the world will further witness the loss of traditional knowledge as the keepers and elders pass away, further disrupting the handing down of their cultural heritage from one generation to the next. How then to stem the tide of this cultural loss of heritage from one generation to the next?

"There seems to be a great resurgence of interest in the old ways. People are going back to the traditional religious practices…Younger people are attending yuwipi ceremonies, purification ceremonies, and learning songs. People are going back to their relatives, or their ancestors, to try to find any information they can."

Emil Her Many Horses, former director of the Buechel Memorial Lakota Museum on the Rosebud Reservation.

Technology has been heralded as the answer on several fronts. In many respects, technology is the ideal medium to preserve, transmit and transform indigenous cultural and empirical knowledge. It can also be used to pursue the constructive dialogue between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. Simultaneously, it is already in use as a research and teaching tool to deliver intercultural education, while promoting multicultural dialogue within the global knowledge society.

Already, the exponential growth of cultural content industries has become a pillar of the information society in Canada and abroad. As well, technology has provided indigenous cultures the opportunity to learn from each other. More importantly, indigenous peoples have grasped the importance of using technology to reinforce their claim for the re-appropriation of objects and knowledge related to their culture. However, it is not the panacea to preserving cultural identity and fostering self-determination many were led to believe. For example, in Papua New Guinea, tribesmen have been known to walk for days from their mountainous heartland to catch the latest episode of Baywatch. Television aside, there is a dark side to using the World Wide Web to preserve traditional knowledge systems. Apart from the issue of intellectual property, how does the development of the information society and the introduction of new technologies impact on the traditions of indigenous peoples, their ways of life, their social organizations in which they live, and their languages? Of concern to elders and keepers of traditional knowledge is the question of how to keep technology from eroding original identity?

"I think it's important for people to realize that we natives are not really "Indians". It's a good thing Columbus was not looking for Turkey, or we'd be called turkeys. "A lot of our tribes don't know their own traditions, teachings or ways. And it's a shame because it seems that somebody could have made the effort to preserve some of that for themselves. When I give lectures that's the first thing I say: "You find out where you are and where you came from."

Abe Conklin, leader of the Ponca Hethuska Society at White Eagle It has been suggested that our cultural industries are under siege? Our government recognizes that cultural goods and services are unlike other products in the marketplace. At the same time, the process of globalization can stimulate cultural expression. Artists, regardless of ethnicity and locale, have a need to create, through the prism of their personal and cultural identities. However, the cultural values which traditionally identified and linked peoples and communities together seem to be under assault by changes in society. In these circumstances, questions are raised as how to embrace our nation's cultural diversity with mutual respect and understanding. Take Toronto for example. It has become one of the most diverse cities on this planet. Current demographic trends point to increasing urbanization of people from different places around the world, speaking different languages, holding different points of view and religious beliefs. As societies become more multicultural, indigenous and culturally distinct groups will demand their rights to express and continue to develop their cultures within the wider society of this nation. That means much of this dialogue will take place in urban cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. The challenge is, how to create spaces that will foster and promote this dialogue between cultural groups, while allowing these groups to express themselves through language, music, art, and other forms of expression? While diversity of expression is a challenge, moving towards it promotes a sense of shared citizenship, part of the cultural glue that holds us together as a nation.

Culture and Technology The internet has become the fastest growing instrument of communication in the history of civilization. It has transformed cultural industries in Canada and abroad, in terms of opportunities and threats. In terms of opportunities, the World Wide Web has fostered cultural exchange, the sharing of ideas, and the adaptation of customs, icons and symbols to rejuvenate and create hybrid traditions. In fact, the internet has emerged as the new medium to transcend traditional public space. Once connected, cybercitizens can journey to a multitude of places and ideas they would not have imagined possible. Moreover, these ideas and dissemination of information and images costs much less than traditional publishing products.

These virtual communities of people interested in the same subjects have usurped the traditional meeting grounds for people interested in similar subject matter, to come together in a borderless world, in the sharing of information and ideas. It allows access to different cultures around the planet, while encouraging the recognition of other cultural values and identities.

Technology (multimedia, databases, Internet) is an ideal research and teaching tool in anthropology, museology, and the preservation and transmission cultural values to present and future generations. The traditional intermediaries of culture have always been museums, galleries, libraries and archives.

The documentary heritage in libraries and archives constitute a major part of the world's collective memory and reflects the diversity of languages, peoples, and cultures. However that memory is fragile because a considerable proportion of this material has begun to disappear due to "natural" causes: paper affected by acid and crumbling to dust, and film and magnetic tape degrade over time. The transition to the World Wide Web, electronic journals and online databases now form an integral part of our cultural heritage and history. More importantly, this cultural heritage treasure trove has become accessible to many people.

In this sense, technology has become the new intermediary of culture, allowing cybercitizens around the world instantaneous access to global libraries, information, and resources. While technology represents a society's gateway to life-long learning, and the medium to protect cultural heritage, it is also a double-edged sword. In a context of instantaneous communication, there is a genuine risk of appropriation of intellectual property. The easy dissemination of information has created problems of copyright regulation, making copyright protection laws mandatory in this digital age. Some of these cases are currently wending its way through the courts. The other paradox is, technology can impose its own standardization of thinking and doing. Instead of celebrating diversity, it can have the converse effect of embracing uniformity of culture.

Copyright and Privacy Legislation Copyright is a complex issue that impact on the selection of materials for digitization. Consulting information on what is covered by copyright is key to selecting materials for digitization. Currently, many cultural institutions have a policy of avoiding the complexities of copyright law by digitizing materials that have passed into the public domain, and are no longer covered by copyright restrictions.

Apart from copyright, privacy is the other minefield when digitizing cultural heritage materials. Regarding the issue of privacy concerns, a distinction must be made between public and public information. For example, there is a difference between public information gained through the Information and Privacy Act, and the oral and written histories, photographs and other artifacts that reside with an individual or groups of individuals. One requires going through the cumbersome process of applying for formal consent from an institution whereas, the other usually requires the approval and written consent of an individual or group.

Digitization of Cultural Heritage Materials Countries have begun to make cultural heritage materials more accessible and meaningful to its citizens. Some of these projects include the UC Davis Eastman Agricultural postcard image collection, the California collection of the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, and the Native American Culture, Pacific Northwest by UNESCO. In the case of the Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives project, the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) was established to meet a recognized reference need in the community concerning referenced materials on Japanese internment.

Hewlett Packard Co. puts Vatican Treasures on the Net
The Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology giant and the Holy See said Tuesday (Oct.29, 2002) that they had placed selected treasures from the Vatican's Apostolic Library on the Internet…

Atlanta Journal-Constitution/LA Times

It is a given that each collection of cultural heritage material has a built in community or audience. However, once that information is placed on the World Wide Web, new and sometimes, unexpected users of this information are born. This online group of users can be classified as a community. Like communities everywhere, online communities talk to each other about ways of using or exploiting information. In other words, the least likely people, sometimes from the least likely places, value and make creative and unpredictable uses of cultural materials. Therefore, it is difficult to predict how user communities would be attracted to particular digital collections of heritage materials.

While there is a relationship between digital libraries and digital collections, a distinction has to be made between the two. Digital collections can be viewed as the raw cultural content wrapped in a database that allows referencing of information within them. Whereas, digital libraries are the systems that make digital collections come alive, in the sense that the materials are already interpreted, presented and packaged for the user. The advantage becomes the ease in manipulating, analyzing and exploiting the materials. Eventually, users begin to comment on the information. In this respect, digital libraries, like communities, bring people together through the sharing of information. Consequently, the creation of digital content of multicultural heritage materials is a key strategy in executing the concept of multiculturalism and the goal of creating an inclusive society. Why? It allows communities to share memories and views of their cultural heritage with others in the community, and the wider public, and the world at large. At the same time, this information can be packaged to reach out to target audiences such as school children, thereby enhancing educational services and curricula. For scholars and historians, it allows the easy research and retrieval of cultural information. From a public perspective, it promotes cross-cultural understanding, and encourages inter-community dialogue among Canadians.

"The nation state has become too small for the big problems of the world and too big for the little problems of the world."

Daniel Bell, Harvard sociologist

Concluding Remarks We live in an increasingly digital world. As technologies to digitize source content mature and become more efficient and widely accessible, the relevant question becomes, how to identify and develop coherent strategies and practical measures with a view to fostering shared citizenship among Canadians. In an attempt to answer this question, let us go back in time to 1991, when the Broadcasting Act came into effect, which states:

"…that the Canadian broadcasting system should through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests, and reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of Canadian men, women and children, including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society, and the special place of Aboriginal peoples within that society." (section 3.1.d.iii)

Technology is the perfect medium to virtually reach out to diverse communities from sea to shining sea, making it the holy grail of creating a more socially inclusive, tolerant and just society. Consequently, Canada needs a similar piece of legislation for digital media, where diverse cultural communities, large and small, can tell their histories and stories on the web, and learn from each other. Like the Broadcasting Act, digital media "should be one in which producers, writers, technicians and artists from different cultural and social perspectives have the opportunity to create a variety of programming and to develop their skills." (Public Notice CRTC 1999-97). Only by doing so, can we as a country aspire to create a new international spirit of pluralism, where all Canadians, from Aboriginal Peoples to recent émigrés, feel that they are an integral part of Canadian society.

Bibliography Wade Davis. The Light at the Edge of the World. Washington: National Geographic Society, 2002. National Museum of the American Indian. Creation's Journey: Native American Identity and Belief. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. World Bank. World Development Report 1998/1999. Knowledge for Development. NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. Robin Mansell and Uta When. Knowledge Societies: Information Technology for Sustainable Development. NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. U.N. World Conference on Science for the 21st century. UNESCO World Report 2001. WWW.UN.Org

Foot Notes 1 Canadian Studies journal, Canadian Issues, February 2002, pp.4-5.

End Notes for Side Bars

p.6    section 2.2    The Ticking Bomb, Globe & Mail; July 6, 2002 p.8    section 2.3    WWW.UNESCO.Org p.9    section 2.3    Native Voices on Life and Culture; p.103 p.10  section 2.3    Native Voices on Life and Culture; p.135 p.14  section 3.0    The Ticking Bomb, Globe & Mail; July 6, 2002