Tag Archives: cultural property

Retracing The Footsteps: Rethinking Montreal’s Creation Narrative

Long before Europeans sailed to Canada and began to settle themselves in the new territory, First Nations tribes had already existed there. When Jacques  Cartier sailed over to the New World and planted his famous cross on Mount Royal to mark French territory in Canada, Native villages were already in place and had been for a while.

If one would go walking around Old Montreal today, they’d see very little reminders that First Nations peoples had lived on this land before the arrival of the European powers. Not much remains of the memory that indigenous peoples were once settled here a long time ago and laid part of the foundation of the Montreal we live in today.

OUR METHOD:

Our intervention consists of two main components: an augmented reality experience that can be accessed through a smartphone application combined with a walking tour. This augmented reality will fill in the blanks of Montreal’s creation story that have been overlooked: namely, the contribution of First Nations peoples. The sites we have chosen are the Pointe-A-Calliere Museum, Chateau Ramezay and the Lachine Canal. Upon arrival at these sites, members of the walking tour can hold up their phones and will be able to see the missing parts of the narrative.

OUR GOALS:

We seek to challenge the current narrative in place with our intervention. With the combined walking tour and augmented reality, we hope to raise questions concerning why the contributions of First Nations peoples are diminished compared to those of European settlers.