Lucy Fraser, the culture secretary, says the removal of controversial monuments is «infantilizing people»; who can judge such things for themselves. Photo: ADAM VAUGHAN/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Culture Secretary has vowed to fight back against those who «seek to erase» history with new guidance on protecting historical statues.
The new «preserve and explain» guidance, published on Thursday, will require memorials and other sites to be kept in place, with an accompanying explanation of their historical context.
The guidelines form part of recommendations for those tasked with maintaining controversial heritage sites. who are being called for to demolish them.
The new guidance will apply to the custodians of all public memorials and monuments, including charities such as the National Trust.
Writing in The Telegraph, Lucy Fraser said the demolition of controversial memorials «infants people» who can judge such items for themselves.
«It would be wrong for this generation to consider themselves so morally superior as to designate himself as the ultimate judge of the character of a man who lived hundreds of years ago, and for that judgment to dictate his memory.”
Explanations must be “balanced.”
Ms Fraser explained: “Custodians may conclude that keeping the asset in place is sufficient and no 'explanation' is required.
“However, if custodians decide to add further explanation to commemorated heritage items, this should be in a balanced way that allows people now and in future generations to learn about their history in its entirety and make their own decisions.”
The guidance was published following the Heritage Advisory Board's consideration of how custodians of controversial sites should respond when faced with calls for their removal or relocation.
The document is described as a «toolkit» that will enable owners, trustees and board members with responsibility for disputed assets to make decisions about them with confidence.
Ms Fraser announced for the first time that the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport will publish new guidelines during her speech at the Conservative Party conference this week.
In her speech, the Culture Secretary accused some members of the Labor Party of being «ashamed of our country's great culture, its people or its past».
The government hopes the leadership will help avoid «hasty, forced or ill-considered seizure of controversial assets.»
Pressure to remove monuments
The announcement comes as institutions have faced increasing pressure in recent years to remove disputed monuments memorials.
The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 saw protests across the UK against memorials dedicated to those associated with the slave trade, culminating in the removal of a statue dedicated to Edward Colston in Bristol.
Ms Fraser wrote: “ In recent years, we have seen countless examples of history being seen solely through a modern lens.»
«Museums and local authorities are under constant pressure from online activists seeking to undo the past and the people in it, rather than contextualize it and learn from our history.”
She quoted historian and host of the Rest Is History podcast Dominic Sandbrook as saying that “statues serve as a daily reminder of the complexity of our national past,” and added: “It is this complexity that we must understand if we are to fully appreciate our history.”< /p >
The new guidance will only apply to England and does not apply to collections in museums and galleries, or to items on temporary exhibition.
Our approach must be to preserve and explain
Lucy Fraser
One of the things that makes this country great, roots us in who we are, and attracts tourists from around the world to our shores is our heritage.
In our cities, towns and villages you will find ancient castles, medieval cathedrals, houses of great kings and queens, writers, poets, inventors and scientists. We are home to structures and landscapes that date back more than a millennium. Each of them tells the story of our brilliant country and is a source of great pride.
But in recent years we have seen countless examples of seeing history solely through a modern lens. Museums and local authorities are under constant pressure from online activists seeking to undo the past and the people in it, rather than contextualizing it and learning from our history.
We know this is not just a UK problem. Just two weeks ago, New York's City Cultural Affairs Committee demanded that statues of George Washington and Christopher Columbus be removed from public spaces because of their links to slavery. Instead of honoring key figures from America's past and recognizing the roles they played in history, this fringe group wants to erase them from memory. This is not politics or even protest; this is hysterical.
Today, many people are obsessed with an overwhelming desire to divide everything, including historical figures and heritage, into good and bad. And often bad.
Obviously, sensitivity has changed over time. The views and opinions of representatives of another era may be literally centuries out of date. History is essentially the study of past events. It should teach us what is wrong and right, context and wrongness. Proud countries can look at their past and see the good and the bad. They can judge works of art, artifacts, statues and murals for what they were and are, and explain them to a modern audience, rather than infantilizing people and communities by removing them.
That would be wrong for the current generation. to consider themselves so morally superior as to appoint themselves the ultimate judge of the character of a person who lived hundreds of years ago, and to have that judgment determine their memory.
Historian Dominic Sandbrook said that “statues serve as a daily reminder of the layered complexity of our national past,” and it is this complexity that we must understand if we are to fully appreciate our history.
As a Government, we recognize the significant pressure and scrutiny that institutions may face when faced with decisions affecting their legacy. So today we are making our position very clear. In the new guidance, we offer advice to government bodies and charities such as the National Trust on how to stand firm and refuse those who try to whitewash parts of our past they don't like.
Our approach is simple. First, if a monument is contested, the approach should be to preserve and explain it. This guidance, applicable to statues, monuments or memorials on public display, will help conservation organizations, local authorities and others adopt this approach.
The new guidance is based on the thinking of the Heritage Advisory Board's academics and heritage experts on how custodians should approach and handle such requests. It states that decisions made about our heritage should not be based on a partial or biased view of our history, but should instead aim to fully explore our past, try to understand it, and encourage people to explain and learn from it.< /p>
Custodians may conclude that keeping the asset in place is sufficient and that no “explanation” is required. However, if custodians decide to add further explanation to commemorated heritage sites, it must be in a balanced way that allows people now and in future generations to learn about their history in its entirety and make their own decisions.
It is time to stop trying to view history in one-dimensional terms and confront those who seek to erase it. It is time to recognize that it is impossible to understand the past by judging it by today's values. And now is the time to prove that learning the lessons of the past is essential to building a better future. This has always been progress.
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