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  • Exhibiting Nation: Multicultural Nationalism (and Its Limits) in Canada's Museums by Caitlin Gordon-Walker
  • Ashley Clarkson
Caitlin Gordon-Walker, Exhibiting Nation: Multicultural Nationalism (and Its Limits) in Canada's Museums (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press 2016)

A compelling element of this book is its ability to force readers to reconsider the more insidious aspects inherent in presenting Canada as a benevolent and inclusive multicultural nation. Multicultural nationalism, as defined by Gordon-Walker, combines the "unifying intentions of nationalism with the pluralizing ambitions of multiculturalism," a form of inclusive nationalism. (7) Gordon-Walker explores how the concept of multicultural nationalism can only be sustained up to a certain point using three basic tenets: firstly, that the state can always achieve unity in diversity; secondly, that the nation can achieve adequate recognition of every individual; lastly, that the nation provides an adequate model for understanding cultural differences on a global or national [End Page 328] scale. (7) The concept of multicultural nationalism explored throughout this book is not only relevant in a Canadian sense, but can be applied more broadly in Australia, Britain, the United States, and the European Union, as these places also incorporate ideas of cultural diversity and tolerance into their national identity. The historiography of multiculturalism is explored in detail and, although exemplary in terms of research, is extremely dense at times and bears the hallmarks of this book's association to her doctoral dissertation at Trent University.

The book is divided into sections related to the metaphors of a Feast, a Spectacle, and a Border. Gordon-Walker uses these themes to delineate different types of representational practices in relation to the Royal BC Museum (rbcm), the Royal Alberta Museum (ram), and the Royal Ontario Museum (rom). "Feast" explores the concept of power and display related to representation. When thinking about a feast there is typically a host and guests with predetermined social etiquette. While feast is employed to represent the sensory dimension of engagement, Gordon-Walker uses spectacle to emphasize the visual aspects and interactive practices of engagement in museums. According to Gordon-Walker there is a normative relationship between the viewer and viewed that is always established in museums. The border is used as a metaphor to delineate boundaries between clearly defined groups and is employed in both the disciplinary and dialogical sense of a border. The use of feast, spectacle, and border is an interesting way to compel readers to consider the questions of inclusion and exclusion according to the power relations at play. These metaphors are all heavily influenced by the concept of museums as contact zones, first employed by Mary-Ann Pratt. Pratt defined "contact zones" as spaces of encounter, negotiation or contact and not one of simple imposition (Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation [London: Routledge, 1992]). The museum as a frame for this discussion is ideal and Gordon-Walker uses interesting case studies to explore the contradiction of museums as disciplinary and also dialogic spaces of contact.

Using the three aforementioned museums, Gordon-Walker traces the structural limits of multicultural nationalism that is embedded in the narratives and also the practices of representation in each museum. In Part Two of the book, "Feast," I appreciated the personal element that Gordon-Walker brought into her discussion of the rbcm. In this section, she highlights the Chinatown exhibition and the limits in the claim that the multicultural nation is achieved when we find unity in diversity. Using the sensory experience, Gordon-Walker explores the caveat that the inclusion of difference must not threaten the unity of the proposed nation. (49) She illustrates how the "museum deliberately seeks to disrupt the narrative of inclusiveness by engaging visitors' senses" with a feeling of discomfort in the Chinatown area of the exhibit. (83) Gordon-Walker has her own reservations with the fact that the exhibit "begs the questions as to whether it is possible to raise the spectre of racial segregation in museums without merely reproducing it." (86) This is an extremely important question that may have benefited from a discussion concerning the curation of difficult knowledge. As scholars Erica Lehrer and Cynthia E. Milton explain, difficult knowledge "is knowledge...

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