Last week our class was lucky enough to visit the Point a
Callière Museum in Old Montreal and see a very interesting exhibition on tea. I
was totally psyched because I LOVE TEA with a passion and I also really love
museums. I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed by the tour. I hate
to throw people under the bus but I do not think that our tour guide did a terrific
job. She spoke a lot of her own trips to museums and China, did not express
herself well in English and did not speak enough about the most interesting
parts of the exhibition. I was happy to learn about the difference between Chai
and Tea in class as well as many other great tidbits that our guide did not
touch upon. Even after saying all of that I still really enjoyed it. It is
fascinating how the world can connect and disconnect over trades and commodities.
It's amazing.
I did NOT however enjoy the movie afterward. I was actually really turned off that a museum which should be non-biased in representing historical facts would spew that "MONTREAL IS GREAT"- propaganda at us. They completely made it seem as if the first Canadians- the native tribes (that resided here in PEACE long before being so called discovered) were violent attackers. I did not like this at all. HELLO!!!!!! How much info is missing here? I didn't expect them to mention the forced assimilation, slavery, piracy, extermination and "ethnic cleansing" of the native peoples but they should not have portrayed them as a waring people.They completely dropped the ball on that one for me, they excluded a gigantic treacherous part of Montreal's history in doing so and I hope that people can see through that.
I was also disappointed in the fact that they also left out stories of the trade, enslavement and abuse of black slaves- right there on our beloved Montreal Old Port (and all over Canada for that matter). I was not surprised that it was not mentioned because black history and culture is usually massively under-represented and predominantly omitted BUT it would have impressed me greatly if it had been mentioned. I suppose that I cannot help but to notice and be ultra-sensitive to these things because of a large part of my cultural identity. I also identify with natives very much and all marginalized peoples BUT I think that it should have been blatantly obvious to any and every one. Was it? Or was it just me seeing through my cultural identity?
In any case, thank you so much for allowing us to have a museum day!!!! SO Great! I now think of tea as connecting agent for people, culture and language- not just an amazing calming and medicinal drink.
Please see the links below: (highlights of one interesting story that took place in Old Mtl)
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/angelique/accueil/indexen.html
http://hour.ca/2006/02/16/hang-fire/
I did NOT however enjoy the movie afterward. I was actually really turned off that a museum which should be non-biased in representing historical facts would spew that "MONTREAL IS GREAT"- propaganda at us. They completely made it seem as if the first Canadians- the native tribes (that resided here in PEACE long before being so called discovered) were violent attackers. I did not like this at all. HELLO!!!!!! How much info is missing here? I didn't expect them to mention the forced assimilation, slavery, piracy, extermination and "ethnic cleansing" of the native peoples but they should not have portrayed them as a waring people.They completely dropped the ball on that one for me, they excluded a gigantic treacherous part of Montreal's history in doing so and I hope that people can see through that.
I was also disappointed in the fact that they also left out stories of the trade, enslavement and abuse of black slaves- right there on our beloved Montreal Old Port (and all over Canada for that matter). I was not surprised that it was not mentioned because black history and culture is usually massively under-represented and predominantly omitted BUT it would have impressed me greatly if it had been mentioned. I suppose that I cannot help but to notice and be ultra-sensitive to these things because of a large part of my cultural identity. I also identify with natives very much and all marginalized peoples BUT I think that it should have been blatantly obvious to any and every one. Was it? Or was it just me seeing through my cultural identity?
In any case, thank you so much for allowing us to have a museum day!!!! SO Great! I now think of tea as connecting agent for people, culture and language- not just an amazing calming and medicinal drink.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/angelique/accueil/indexen.html
http://hour.ca/2006/02/16/hang-fire/
Book Recommendation:The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montreal: The Hanging of Angelique by Afua Cooper (A must read: I was lucky enough to sit down and chat with the author back in 2005)
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