If this is what “woke” has come to mean, just let me stay asleep.
It was one of those headlines you read while scrolling the internet and almost laugh until you realize this is not a joke.
The Canadian government is going to pay somebody to rework the stories about Anne of Green Gables to offer more diversity.
Can Green Gables be any other colour?
Basically, because 2024 will be the 150th birthday of author Lucy Maud Montgomery, the powers that be will try to fix something that has never been broken.
I admit to being just a simple Canadian girl, but I saw nothing in the story other than what was written on the page. I thought it was the adventures of a little red-headed, green-eyed orphaned girl living on Prince Edward Island.
For years, it was all I ever knew about P.E.I. and I am going to assume that’s the way it has been for generations of readers.
It certainly put the island on the map around the world since it was published in 1908. And if I ever visited there, that would be one reason why.
A January news release from Parks Canada read as follows: “The first stand-alone management plan for Green Gables Heritage Place was recently developed and comes as the site enters an integral milestone in its history.”
More than 200,000 people visited annually before the pandemic and Parks Canada says Green Gables Heritage Place is almost back to those levels.
Apparently, several groups have been spending time on this subject — from Indigenous communities and tourism boards to nature groups and stakeholders.
It is said to be a new 15-year outlook. They don’t come out and specifically say they are going to rewrite history, but I think that’s part of it.
“Through this management plan, Parks Canada will protect an important example of cultural heritage in Canada, engage and collaborate with Indigenous peoples, and provide an opportunity for Canadians to experience and discover history in new and innovative ways," says Parks Canada.
Montgomery’s Cavendish National Historic Site is Mi’kmaq territory.
OK, that's fine. Can’t that fact just be added to the book cover?
Do we need new characters, scenarios and narratives?
Must we change Anne to resemble each of us? Really?
I’m not offended because I never looked like a little freckled girl. I’m also not going to feel any better if she becomes brunette with glasses.
This particular made-up character had the friends she had in the town she lived in because that was in the imagination of the author. It was what she saw in her mind’s eye at the time in history when she created it.
It’s a sweet Canadian story that generations of families around the world have loved.
So why can’t we just leave it as it is?
If you want a different story then write it, but leave Anne alone. She’s not hurting you or your heritage.
Anne was pretty feisty, as I recall, so she’d likely be up for a good fight over changing who and what she was. She had that fiery red hair after all.
Maybe Canadians would be better served to get a bit more testy over those messing with our literary classics. If not that, stop wasting our money on changes that are not the least bit necessary.
Sure, fix up the house, protect the land and preserve nature, but leave the story as it is.
I can think of literally hundreds of other issues we could address to make the life of all Canadians better.
To quote Anne or Lucy: “It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. Of course, you must make it up firmly.”
The gazette.com suggests the novel offers “a message of hope, imagination and perseverance.”
Shouldn’t that be enough for any of us from anywhere at any time?
