2024 Speaker Series: Reconciling our Built Heritage: The Decolonization of "100 Wellington" (former US Embassy, Ottawa Canada)

About

Christopher DesRivieres (M.A., GCS, LEED GA) graduated from La Cite Collegial in 2008 as an Architectural Technologist. He received a BA in Canadian Studies, with an emphasis on Indigenous Studies and a minor in Anthropology from Carleton University in 2020.

He completed an MA in Canadian Studies with a specialization in Heritage and Conservation from Carleton University in the spring of 2023.  Throughout his undergraduate studies, he was able to blend his professional career and knowledge with his passion for Indigenous Studies and issues. Currently Christopher is working for general contractors as an Estimator in the nation's capital, Ottawa.

Part of the Center for Canadian-American Studies 2024 Speaker Series: Populations Rendered ‘Surplus’ in Canada 

This case study tackles the controversial “gifting” of the former United States Embassy (Ottawa, Canada) to the National Indigenous Organizations. The main issue with this “gift” is that within the current settler-colonial heritage and conservation regulations, it has strict limitations on interventions that would decolonize this building, making it the new Indigenous Peoples’ Space. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Call to Action 79 addresses that issue, in theory. However, despite an outcry by local Anishinaabeg and Indigenous activists stating that another site would be ideal, Asinabka/Akikodjiwan (Victoria Island), they must settle with this site for now.

The research is based on critical discourse analysis of government websites, reports, speeches, commissions, newspaper articles, academic articles and an emphasis on Indigenous literature. Indigenous research methods, such as storytelling, visiting and self-reflexivity, are a means to ground this research from a decolonizing framework. This research captures the reality of Indigenous hurdles at 100 Wellington and Asinabka/Akikodjiwan and shortfalls by the TRC.