Queen statue defaced after repair, raising questions of how to engage with colonial history
Manitoba historian, residential school survivor weren't surprised to see statue spray-painted with 'colonizer'
A statue of Queen Elizabeth II toppled on Canada Day two years ago was defaced with spray paint a day after it was put back up, sparking conversation on what to do with the monument next.
Residential school survivor Belinda Vandenbroeck said it didn't surprise her when she found out the statue had been vandalized again.
"It doesn't surprise me because if they put up another one, mark my words, it'll go down again," said Vandenbroeck.
"People just do not support that anymore."
On July 1, 2021, demonstrators toppled the bronze statue of Queen Elizabeth II on Manitoba Legislature grounds during a demonstration over the deaths of Indigenous children in residential schools.
A statue of Queen Victoria facing Broadway was also pulled down, beheaded and covered with red paint. It has not been replaced.
Statue returned Friday
The Queen Elizabeth II statue, which was less damaged than the other, was restored and put back in its original place Friday. The words "killer" and "colonizer" were found spray-painted on the statue's base Saturday.
"My thought was, 'Why would you do that?'" Vandenbroeck said when she heard the statue was being replaced. "You might as well have hit me in the gut."
But Vandenbroeck said she understands why it was put back — because we live in a colonized country, she said.
Queen Victoria reigned from June 1837 until her death in 1901, which means she was the monarch as Canada entered Confederation, when the federal government negotiated treaties with Indigenous Peoples and when Canada enacted its residential school policy.
Residential school survivors and advocates had called on Queen Elizabeth II — Queen Victoria's great-great-granddaughter — to apologize for the monarchy's role in the policy prior to her death on Sept. 8, 2022.
"It's hard for me to understand why we keep supporting the systems that are in place to keep us down," Vandenbroeck added.
It's also hard for non-Indigenous people to understand the issues Indigenous people face, she said.
WATCH | Statue of Queen Victoria toppled at Manitoba Legislature:
Don't hide history: Goldsborough
Gordon Goldsborough, a historian and member of the Manitoba Historical Society, said he also wasn't surprised when the statue was defaced again, but he doesn't think the statue should be hidden away.
Instead, Goldsborough said the statue could be displayed together with the Queen Victoria statue, along with information and backstory about why the statues are a contentious issue.
"That's what we should take from history. We shouldn't hide it away," Goldsborough said. "We should keep it so that we're reminded about things in our past."
The statue could be placed at The Forks next to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights or any place where it could be "constructively interpreted," Goldsborough said.
"It is overly confrontational to put it on the grounds of the legislature," he said, which is why Goldsborough said he thought it shouldn't have been put back up.
"It's just going to be a lightning rod for further controversy," he said.
Goldsborough also believes the Queen Victoria statue shouldn't be fixed, and the red handprints should not be removed.
"These statues are important reminders to us. And yeah, there's sometimes things that are not so good associated with them, but that's part of history," Goldsborough said.
"If we try to expunge it, if we try to censor it, we risk having these events repeated."
The government plans to place a monument of Chief Peguis and four other chiefs who signed the first treaty in what is now Manitoba on the northwest corner of the legislative grounds. Vandenbroeck said that monument should go where the Queen Victoria statue was.
CBC has reached out to the province for comment.
With files from Erin Brohman