Thoughts on a trip to Ottawa, Part 1

I went to the Museum of Civilization on Friday. The name is a bit misleading – perhaps it should be Museum of Civilization in Canada. A museum is an odd sort of thing and this one is no exception. Essentially it is a collection of objects of significant historical or artistic merit put on display. The art museum/gallery I can understand and makes sense but the historical type of museum is different. In this case, there are historical objects mixed with reconstructed artefacts and settings, particularly with displays from less recent times.

Highlighting the oddness of it all are the tour groups, many with Asian members, who come through on a whirlwind visit, packing the Museum in an already packed schedule (it makes me think of an article Jan Wong from the Globe and Mail wrote after having joined up on one these tours). The tour guide, flag in hand, leads the group to a display area, talks a bit about it, and moves on. The digital cameras flash as the group wanders through a section that no one really stops to read or look at. One wonders: what is the point of the museum to them? Why even go on a tour? A collection of experiences? To say: I’ve been there, I’ve seen that? It makes me think of Umberto Eco’s collection of essays entitled “Travels in Hyperreality.”

I don’t mean to single out Asian tourists in particular because for me what is the point of any tourism? Why do I go on tourist adventures? Why am I here? Why do I go to museums? Is it to learn something? Perhaps. For entertainment? For the experience? More likely, at least in this case. History as entertainment – I think that could be said of the Museum of Civilization. They shouldn’t be faulted – it’s what people want.

The Museum of Civilization is laid out in a linear fashion – pre-contact, followed by European explorers and settlement and so on. There is a path to follow that doesn’t require backtracking and if you follow this path you’ll catch the history of Canada, uninterrupted. There is one exception – the First People’s Hall that branches off from the pre-contact civilization section. To resume the journey, you have to backtrack. This section seemed much less geared to entertainment and more to showing how people lived during that time. It was also quieter than the other sections of the museum.