Throughout history, monuments have been erected to act as reminders of sites, events and people. In Canada, many of these commemorative markers reflect one side of history and further Indigenous erasure. This thesis supports my 2018 MFA exhibition titled “very fine people on both sides” that interrogates the distribution of understanding and multiple perspectives surrounding monuments and reconciliation. The thesis considers the historical, social, and political positioning of monuments and their relationship to Canada’s engagement within the process of reconciliation. It investigates how monument interventions have been employed by Indigenous artists as a space for reclamation to acknowledge true histories. Through critical discourse analysis and case studies, this thesis investigates how “the monument” is perceived in contemporary timelines as an underpinning for further research into how the creation/prospect of new monuments proposed under the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action can be improved to better reflect Indigenous and Canadian realities.

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