More than 9,000 people shared their stories about the First World War with The Rooms.
The result was the exhibit Beaumont-Hamel and the Trail of the Caribou.
The 5,600-square-foot permanent exhibit features photographs, artifacts, dramatized video and sound design to immerse visitors in the people and places that deeply affected Newfoundlanders and Labradorians during and after the Great War.
“It fascinates me what people remember, what society remembers and what it doesn’t.”
With the sound of gunfire, explosions and popular war-themed songs playing in the background, the exhibition’s focus on people – and the timing of its opening to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the battle of Beaumont-Hamel in 2016 – raises questions about the commemoration while simultaneously participating in the act of remembrance.
Dr. Lucian Ashworth toured the exhibit earlier this month.
“It fascinates me what people remember, what society remembers and what it doesn’t,” said the professor of political science in Memorial’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
‘It wasn’t like the war went away’
Take the Spanish Flu pandemic, for example.
“Spanish Flu killed twice as many people in half the time that the First World War did,” Dr. Ashworth said. “It was devastating too, particularly in places like Labrador. But it’s kind of forgotten.”
The question of when significant events or people are remembered is also interesting, Dr. Ashworth adds.
Much of the storytelling and commemoration about the Great War didn’t occur in the immediate aftermath, for example, but much later.
Dr. Vicki Hallett, an associate professor in the Department of Gender Studies at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, says “it wasn’t like the war went away.”
“So, how we remember, how we commemorate and how war gets pictured and then used to continuously recreate or create new ideas about who belongs in the nation, what the nation is, what freedom means,” she said. “These kinds of things are fascinating to me.”
Unique event
Drs. Hallett and Ashworth will explore these ideas and more in the latest installation of Dialogue and Debate with Memorial University at The Rooms on Wednesday, Nov. 13.
The event, titled Questioning Commemorations, starts at 7 p.m.
Dialogue and Debate is a unique event series that partners Memorial University and The Rooms to showcase the museum’s exhibits with timely topics of discussion by university experts.
The next session is being held as part of Memorial’s 100th-anniversary planning, which will commemorate the university’s centennial in 2025.
Community spaces
Kate Wolforth, director of the art gallery, museums and visitor experience at The Rooms, says museums are important community spaces for reflection and remembrance.
“Part of our role is to create platforms for conversations that are relevant to our community and to facilitate connections for our audiences between past and present so that we can look to a collective future with a clearer understanding of context,” she said.
Dr. Hallett says she’s eager to dive deep into the topic.
“I’m looking forward to engaging with my colleague, Dr. Ashworth, and the audience as we delve into the many ways we understand and enact commemorations, and how that impacts our society.”
Dr. Ashworth says commemorations and remembrance are always changing as society changes.
“Asking questions about how the present makes use of the past is a crucial part of how we understand ourselves and our communities.”
Registration for Dialogue and Debate is now open.