Redefining Heritage.
Dragon Centre Mall Part #3
Picking up where the second instalment of this series left off, the Commemorating Dragon Centre project hosted over 60 people at the centre to celebrate and share memories of their time at the mall. All of the work Howard Tam and his partners have done through the commemoration project will culminate to a final installation display and a donation of the fruits of this labour for Torontonian’s to continue to explore at the Toronto Archives.
“Heritage is everywhere. It is a lens through which we can understand our past and plan for the future.”
— Heritage Toronto
Throughout Toronto, many of the Heritage buildings are European faith churches. In the Agincourt neighbourhood not far from Dragon Centre, Knox Presbyterian Church has had a Heritage designation since 1979. Heritage is defined differently depending on who is defining it and where. Here in Toronto, our buildings are not nearly as old as those in Europe.
The majority of buildings in the core of London for example predate the 1900’s. In Amsterdam, the majority of the city’s core has existed since the 1870’s. Toronto did not begin to take it’s shape as we know it until well into the 1900’s. For this and other reasons, the Toronto definition of a heritage site is not exclusively attached to the age of a building.
In Toronto,“despite being a city largely peopled by immigrants, the British heritage was taken to be the norm and Eastern and Southern Europeans who came in the period 1910–30 were viewed as foreigners.”(Qadeer page 60–61). In more recent years, Chinese immigrants have established themselves in Scarborough but not without conflict either. Without documentation, erasure of such a history and heritage is at risk of being lost in the shuffle of new development and gentrification.
“Throughout the world, the promotion of cultural diversity and heritage can help create strong community bonds, fostering social inclusion and equity in urban areas.” — Heritage Toronto, 2019
Social Cohesion
Collecting and presenting these stories is one way to ensure that histories are not lost. In Toronto’s Official Plan it states: “Commemoration of lost historical sites will be encouraged whenever a new private development or public work is undertaken in the vicinity of historic sites, such as those where major historical events occurred, important buildings or landscape features have disappeared or where important cultural activities have taken place.” (3) Each diverse community has it’s own heritage. Toronto and Canada are made of many rich histories which contribute to the multicultural fabric of our shared culture. In 1995, the World Summit for Social Development for the United Nations defined a cohesive society as “one in which all groups have a sense of belonging, participation, recognition and legitimacy.”
“Almost half of Toronto’s population was born outside of Canada…. [We need to] strengthen our understanding of immigration history through innovation in interpretation and public engagement.”
— Toronto Ward Museum
Through Howard’s efforts, he has worked with the city to ensure that a Heritage Toronto plaque will be installed on the site when the new development is completed.
“In recent years, a wider linguistic representation of the city has been featured on numerous heritage plaques, including Mandarin, Mohawk, Ojibwe, Gaelic, and Ukrainian.” — Heritage Toronto, 2019
Acknowledging a place and it’s history does not have to take physical form through preservation, it can be enough to show respect by spending the time to remember and simply say, ‘Thank You’.
References:
- Multiculturalism Policy of Canada
- Heritage Toronto (https://www.heritagetoronto.org/what-we-do/state-of-heritage/)
- https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/8f06-OfficialPlanAODA_Compiled-3.0.pdf#page=74
