Negotiating the dominance of a colonial narrative: the challenging work of historical interpreters

我的博士学位将详细介绍在遗产遗址保存殖民叙事的机制，为土著和非土著历史解说员提供及时、实用的见解，我将他们定义为重新谈判和分享历史叙事的人。我提出了一项多方法研究，将英格兰、北爱尔兰和海龟岛(温哥华和马萨诸塞州)的四个核心遗址的民族志、历史话语分析和档案研究结合在一起。在为期七个月的多地点实地考察中，我计划通过参与者观察和半结构化访谈来考察土著和非土著历史口译人员之间的纠葛。为了了解在这些交流中引起的土著代表的历史背景，我将查阅现场档案。我的目标是进行历史话语分析，特别关注遗产遗址面向公众的叙事是如何变化的，包括展览标志和宣传材料。我还计划利用第二历史记述，并将与历史学家大卫·斯特鲁普(David Stirrup)(英国)、科尔·斯鲁什(Coll Thrash)(加拿大)和托马斯·威克曼(Thomas Wickman)(美国)合作，以及一个由美国原住民和第一民族公共历史学家组成的网络。我的研究和田野工作抱负将得到肯特郡美国研究中心的支持，该中心罕见地专注于土著研究、早期欧洲殖民以及与美国和加拿大大学的密切联系。我的工作还将对新的土著和定居者殖民地研究中心作出重大贡献。我的研究扩展了美国研究中一个日益增长的运动，即应用去殖民主义的方法，将土著人民重新安置在中心，而不是历史叙事的边缘。Coll Thrash和David Stirrup在The Beyond the壮观项目中考察了历史记录，揭示了土著人民在塑造英国方面的工具作用。根据杰斯·韦弗的《红色大西洋》，画眉和斯特鲁普否认了他们正在重新发现土著影响的说法，但他们辩称，他们正在从强制的沉默中恢复账户。我的博士学位将在这项工作的基础上有意义地发展，将重点从土著历史经验转向对当代土著与定居者殖民遗产遗址和历史叙事的详细分析。通过这一焦点，我将揭示继续‘强制’土著历史沉默的结构和表现。这项研究解决了现有文献中未能审视具有挑战性的、情绪化的历史解释工作的空白。在考察这一实践时，我的研究处于后殖民理论、批判性遗产研究、民族史、非殖民化理论和土著研究的交汇点。蒂姆·卢克(Tim Luke)、帕特里夏·戴维森(Patricia Davison)、亚历克斯·泰雷尔(Alex Tyrrell)和詹姆斯·沃尔文(James Walvin)等后殖民遗产理论家在展示遗产在国家建设中的作用时，对自然化的历史观提出了根本挑战。我的论文将利用这些研究来思考土著的“他者”是如何通过遗产遗址产生的，以及一个欢庆的殖民叙事。然而，我认为这些研究一直低估了历史译员的工作，以及他们专业和个人身份的多样性。我认为，历史解读者作为国家建设策划者的主导形象忽视了对历史解读的使用，以挑战和颠覆自我肯定的国家叙事。我认为，研究这种对历史解释的“颠覆性”使用的理论基础，对于理解遗产中的中心辩论至关重要，例如适当的纪念、遣返和黑人生活也是有影响的。

My PhD will detail the mechanisms that preserve colonial narratives at heritage sites, providing timely, practical insights for Native and non-Native historical interpreters, who I define as those who renegotiate and share a historical narrative. I propose a multi-method study, incorporating ethnography, historical discourse analysis and archival research at four core heritage sites in England, Northern Ireland and Turtle Island (Vancouver and Massachusetts). During seven months of multi-sited fieldwork, I plan to examine entanglements between Indigenous and non-Native historical interpreters, through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. To understand the historical contexts of Indigenous representations evoked in these exchanges, I will consult on-site archives. I aim to undertake historical discourse analysis with particular attention to how the heritage site's public-facing narratives have changed, including exhibition signage and promotional materials. I also plan to draw on secondary historical accounts, and will work collaboratively with historians, David Stirrup (UK), Coll Thrush (Canada) and Thomas Wickman (USA), as well as a network of Native American and First Nation's public historians.My research and fieldwork aspirations will be supported by Kent's Centre for American Studies, with its rare focus on Indigenous Studies, early European colonisation and strong connections with US and Canadian universities. My work will also contribute significantly to the new Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies. My research expands on a growing movement in American Studies, to apply decolonised methodologies to relocate Indigenous people at the centre, rather than the periphery of historical narratives. Coll Thrush, and David Stirrup with the Beyond the Spectacle project, examine historical records to reveal the instrumental role of Indigenous people in shaping the UK. Drawing on Jace Weaver's Red Atlantic, Thrush and Stirrup reject the notion that they are rediscovering Indigenous influence but argue that they are reclaiming accounts from an enforced silence. My PhD will meaningfully build on this work, by changing the focus from Indigenous historical experience to a detailed analysis of contemporary Native engagements with settler-colonial heritage sites and historical narratives. Through this focus, I will uncover the structures and representations that continue to 'enforce' the silencing of Indigenous history.This research addresses a gap in existing literature that fails to examine the challenging, emotive work of historical interpretation. In examining this practice, my study sits at the intersection of postcolonial theory, critical heritage studies, ethnohistory, decolonisation theory and Indigenous studies. Postcolonial heritage theorists such as Tim Luke, Patricia Davison, Alex Tyrrell and James Walvin, present a fundamental challenge to naturalised notions of history in demonstrating the nation-building role of heritage. My thesis will draw on these studies to consider how the Indigenous 'other', and a celebratory colonial narrative, are produced through the heritage site. Nevertheless, I suggest that these studies have consistently underexamined the work of historical interpreters, and the diversity of their professional and personal identities. I argue that the dominant image of the historical interpreter as a nation-building curator overlooks the use of historical interpretation to challenge and subvert self-affirming national narratives. I suggest that a theoretical foundation for the examination of this 'subversive' use of historical interpretation is essential for understanding central debates in heritage, such as appropriate memorialisation, repatriation and the impact of Black Lives Matter.