The Champlain Monument: Memorializing Orillia's Past, Rewriting Orillia's History

Tuesday, January 16, 2018, 2 p.m.
Dr. Kim Fedderson, Past Principal, Lakehead University

Unveiled in 1925, Orillia's Champlain monument emerged within a period of widespread "statuemania" buttressing national narratives and providing material expression to the "imagined communities" central to stories of the Nation. Recently, a number of monuments and memorials have given rise to protest nationally and internationally, and this fall Parks Canada began restoration of the Orillia monument. In this talk, Fedderson unpacks the Champlain monument's place in the unfolding culture of the city; the stories it told about the community Orillia was; and, once restored, the stories it could tell about the community Orillia might become.

Dr. Kim Fedderson is Professor Emeritus in the English Department at Lakehead University, and the former Principal of the Orillia Campus. His field is rhetorical studies, and his work spans Renaissance literature, adaptations of Shakespeare, and contemporary rhetorical theory. This new project highlights his continuing engagement with the Orillia community.