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Like many Canadians, our team at Heritage Saskatchewan has seen news reports about white supremacist groups gathering in this country in recent weeks. In many of the photos, the word “heritage” is prominently featured, whether on signage or clothing, and many of the individuals quoted talk about protecting Canadian heritage. Understandably, Heritage Saskatchewan (and our Saskatchewan Heritage Coalition partner, the Museums Association of Saskatchewan) finds this alarming. Combined with the term “heritage” being used, particularly in the United States, as a synonym for “social conservative reactionism” or outright a code word for “white” or “European-descended”, we think it is important for us to discuss what we, Heritage Saskatchewan, are talking about and how our vision and mission do not align with those of white supremacists. We need to reclaim the word “heritage” itself.

In presentations, we often start by asking our audiences “what comes to mind when you hear the word ‘heritage’?” We get a variety of answers: ethnic background, history, old things, crumbling buildings, paint colours, furniture, language, marketing, etc. Then, we start the presentation by claiming that all of those answers are technically right.

So, what is heritage? Strictly speaking, the word is simply another form of “inheritance”. It is everything we receive from the past, steward in the present, and pass along to the future. It is not one kind of thing, and it is certainly not unchanging.

To illustrate this, let’s look at our genetic inheritance. Every person inherits half of their genes from each of their biological parents. They do not have the same genetic heritage as their parents. Each genetic recombination is different. Similarly, we inherit language, culture, history, and physical items from our ancestors and communities, and this heritage “recombines” differently for each person and recombines again when they pass it along to others.

However, rather than “inheritance”, most of us think of heritage as a synonym for “old”, “important”, “old and important”, or “looks aesthetically like it is old and important” (in the case of marketing paint colours or window shapes, for example). At Heritage Saskatchewan, we fight back against this perception.

While I do not know what every individual white supremacist is thinking while wielding a sign that says “Protect our Heritage” (hopefully spelled correctly), they probably are thinking of all of the concepts I have mentioned. It is more than just genetic heritage, though it would be easy to only focus on that. They have inherited combinations of language, culture, and history that they feel are old and important. However, they want to exclude other stories and combinations in their view of what Canadian heritage is.

At Heritage Saskatchewan, we want to broaden the understanding of what heritage inherently is, not narrow it.

Canadian identity is a wide net. There isn’t one stereotypical Canadian image. Pierre Trudeau is the one who is credited with saying that he did not want us talking about “all-Canadian boys and girls”. From the beginning of our history, our identity has been diverse and fluid. That is the Canadian identity. We are not a nation built on shared ethnicity or language. We are a nation built from shared geography and a willingness to cooperate to survive (even if that cooperation turned into imperialism and we now need to reconcile with that).

Canadian heritage is everything to do with Canada. We are a global, multicultural country. People from every culture, ethnicity, and faith are part of it. Heritage Saskatchewan will continue to advocate for this inheritance.