Canadian Myth or Reality?
The idea that historical events, actions, and developments can be used and abused to shape a country's identity has been a focus of one of the world's leading historians, Canadian Margaret MacMillan.
The Uses and Abuses of History
→ Taking
lessons from the past can be dangerous as history can be used and abused to shape and distort our nation's identity. History can move identity myths into identity reality.
How History is Used & Abused
→ history offers simplicity when the present seems bewildering and chaotic.
→ historians have tried to discern grand patterns that explain everything.
→ history can provide evidence of divine purpose.
→ history can fuel a sense of nationalistic or ethnic superiority.
→ history can provide an escape from the present by romanticizing the past as a simpler and clearer world.
→ history provides a source of heroes for today as we are too aware of our present-day leaders' shortcomings.
→ history can be used to rewrite, deny or destroy the past.
→ history can be used to confront or conceal past wrongs.
→ the telling of false or one-sided stories about the past can be used to justify present action.
History as Identity Project → Shaping Identity Through the Uses & Abuses of Canadian History
FOCUS
# 4 Cause & Consequence AND # 6 Ethical Dimension
TASKS
1. Students identify & choose a CANADIAN IDENTITY MYTH.
2. Students confront that IDENTITY MYTH by investigating its roots in an historical event, action, and/or development.
→ be sure to research the roots, historical forces, and key events, actions or developments that perpetuate the myth.
→ identify the most critical of the 8 forces of identity to the creation and continuation of the myth.
3. Students expose that IDENTITY MYTH by investigating a single historical event, action, and/or development that contradicts
that MYTH.
→ identify the most critical of the 8 forces of identity to exposing and/or dispelling the myth.
4. Students reflect on the ethical dimensions of that IDENTITY MYTH, specifically the reality of the legal or social injustices
hidden behind that MYTH.
→ be sure to reflect on one injustice that needs to be addressed by Canada and/or Canadians to ensure Canada is a
more just society.
FINAL PRODUCT → Students record their findings from tasks 1 to 4 on the concept map reproduced above (students will receive a paper copy in class).
BELOW ARE SOME VISUAL EXAMPLES OF CANADIAN IDENTITY MYTHS
IDENTITY MYTH → Canada is an Environmentally Progressive Country
IDENTITY MYTH → Canada is a Leader in International Peacekeeping & Peacekeeping Standards
IDENTITY MYTH → Canadian Industry Profits from Peacemaking Not War
IDENTITY MYTH → Canada is a Global Leader in Advancing & Protecting Human Rights
IDENTITY MYTH → Canada is a Leader in Public Universal Heath Care