Urbanarium City Debates
City Debate #12: REMOVE COLONIAL MARKERS (VIDEO)
Around the world, people are calling for the renaming of places and the removal of monuments honouring racist colonial figures. Does erasing the historical markers inadvertently diminish the opportunities for current and future generations to remember and meaningfully confront our history? Or does removing the offensive markers enable a more productive dialogue? In that case, who decides which markers to remove, what happens to them, and what, if anything, replaces them?
Organized by: Urbanarium,
UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture,
Heritage Vancouver Society
Sponsored by: Singleton Urquhart Reynolds Vogel LLP
Pro
Krystal Paraboo
Krystal Paraboo is an award-winning Curator, Art Historian, Writer, and Community Builder. Krystal has worked in public and private arts institutions, recently shifting to public art. She bridges placemaking, art and activism through the Black & Indigenous Design Collective, and recently joined the City of Vancouver as a Public Art Planner.
Nadine Nakagawa
Nadine Nakagawa is an organizer, activist, intersectional feminist, creative writer, social justice fairy, and New Westminster city councillor. She co-owns a consulting business called Ablaze Services and is the co-founder of the Feminist Campaign School. She is known as a bold leader on climate and social justice issues.
Con
Michael Prokopow
Michael Prokopow is an historian and curator. His areas of expertise include material culture, and critical theory. In 2021 he published a study of British artist Hurvin Anderson. Currently he is working on a study of contemporary residential architecture in British Columbia. Prokopow is a faculty member at OCAD University.
Tijana Vujosevic
Tijana Vujosevic is Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at UBC. Originally from Serbia, she studied architecture at Yale and MIT. As a New Canadian, she is working hard to understand the colonial past of her new home.
Pre-debate poll results
Pro
81%
Con
19%
Post-debate poll results
Pro
86%
Con
14%