Parks Canada has announced plans to introduce new Acadian, indigenous, black, and other cultural interpretations and narratives at the Green Gables Heritage Place in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
The federal agency lists as one of its objectives for the site to have collaborations “with organizations that represent cultures not currently presented at the site (e.g., Acadian, BIPOC [black, indigenous, and other people of colour’]) ... strengthened, and new narratives, perspectives and voices are shared with visitors.”
The move appears to be part of the broader government-wide initiative to emphasize diversity.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables,” a classic coming-of-age story, is one of Canada’s most famous books.
The 1908 novel portrays the life of Anne, a red-haired orphan raised by a white, English-speaking Presbyterian couple. It quickly became a bestseller and has been continuously in print for over a century, cementing Anne Shirley as an iconic figure in Canadian culture.
The novel has achieved global success, with around 50 million copies sold, translations into at least 36 languages including braille, and over two dozen adaptations across various formats.
Green Gables Heritage Place, which has attracted visitors since the novel’s publication, was settled by author Montgomery’s family in 1831 and has been managed by Parks Canada since 1936.
There have been several other cases of federal departments revisiting icons of Canadian history in line with inclusion priorities.
According to Blacklock’s, some of the content that was removed include essays “celebrating Sir John A. Macdonald,” Canada’s first prime minister, as well as articles on French explorers in which the “Indigenous perspective is missing.”
