Green Gables Heritage Site to Include ‘New Narratives’ From Other Cultures

A young girl enters Green Gables House in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, on July 3, 2011. The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan

Parks Canada has announced plans to introduce new Acadian, indigenous, black, and other cultural interpretations and narratives at the Green Gables Heritage Place in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

“Partnerships will establish linkages between the site and new communities, yielding new visitor experiences that share more inclusive histories and seek to advance reconciliation,” says the recently revealed Management Plan for the Parks Canada heritage site, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The federal agency lists as one of its objectives for the site to have collaborations “with organizations that represent cultures not currently presented at the site (e.g., Acadian, BIPOC [black, indigenous, and other people of colour’]) ... strengthened, and new narratives, perspectives and voices are shared with visitors.”

The move appears to be part of the broader government-wide initiative to emphasize diversity.

A message from Parks Canada President and CEO Ron Hallman on the agency’s website says that it is committed to “equity, diversity, inclusion and reconciliation” in all that it does. The website adds that its focus in creating inclusive spaces includes “providing fair and equitable access to opportunities for under-represented people including: Black, Indigenous, people of colour, the Two Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ (2SLGBTQ+) community, and people living with disabilities.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables,” a classic coming-of-age story, is one of Canada’s most famous books.

The 1908 novel portrays the life of Anne, a red-haired orphan raised by a white, English-speaking Presbyterian couple.  It quickly became a bestseller and has been continuously in print for over a century, cementing Anne Shirley as an iconic figure in Canadian culture.

The novel has achieved global success, with around 50 million copies sold, translations into at least 36 languages including braille, and over two dozen adaptations across various formats.

Green Gables Heritage Place, which has attracted visitors since the novel’s publication, was settled by author Montgomery’s family in 1831 and has been managed by Parks Canada since 1936.

There have been several other cases of federal departments revisiting icons of Canadian history in line with inclusion priorities.

In 2022, Archives Canada ordered the purge of what it deemed “offensive” content on thousands of national archives webpages.

According to Blacklock’s, some of the content that was removed include essays “celebrating Sir John A. Macdonald,” Canada’s first prime minister, as well as articles on French explorers in which the “Indigenous perspective is missing.”