International Cultural Relations as a Factor in Postwar Canadian Cultural Policy: The Relevance of UNESCO for the Massey Commission

Abstract

The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences (The Massey Commission, 1949 is widely seen to be Canada's most important position paper on national cultural policy. This article explores the relation of this significant document to UNESCO and its characteristic discourse of "cultural relations." Not only did UNESCO appear in the terms of reference for the Massey Commission Report, but it also was a repeated touchstone for submissions to the Commission. This overlooked international aspect of the Massey Commission underscores the connection between politics and culture in Cold War Canada providing a clear case of how international political language becomes entangled with-and helps to legitimize-artistic and cultural endeavours. The combination of the discussion of education and culture with that of development and trade allowed Canada to reconsider its position on public funding for the arts.Résumé: La commission royale sur le développement national des arts, des lettres et des sciences (la Commission Massey, 1949) est vue par de nombreuses personnes comme étant la plus importante en ce qui a trait à la politique culturelle nationale. Cet article explore les rapports entre ce document présenté à l'UNESCO et son discours caractéristique de ¨relations culturelles¨. Non seulement l'UNESCO sert-elle comme point de référence dans ce rapport, mais il fut aussi un repère constant dans les soumissions à la commission. Cet aspect international négligé de la commission Massey souligne le lien entre la politique et la culture au Canada pendant la guerre froide. Ceci démontre de façon évidente de quelle façon le langage politique international devient entremêlé avec et prête une certaine légitimité aux activités culturelles et artistiques. Le rapprochement de la discussion sur l'éducation et la culture avec celle du développement et du commerce permet au canada de reconsidérer sa situation vis-à-vis le financement public des arts.

Other(ing) practices : critiquing the Canada Council for the Arts' Equity Office

“…Fatona (2011) indicates that many interpreted Canada's Massey Commission's mandate "as a campaign to galvanize Canadian nationalism in order to distinguish postcolonial Canada as distinct from its southern neighbour and from Britain" (73). Druick (2006) states that the postwar period was characterized by "the crisis surrounding recovery and reconstruction after a devastating war; anxieties about the return of economic depression; and a reconfigured world order" (179). While Druick (2006) argues that much of the research about the Massey Report focuses on its positive role in the funding of Canadian arts and culture (and in turn, a higher quality of Canadian life), she also points out the relationship between culture and security in the 1950s as articulated by Dowler (1996): "Culture constituted a form of defense against both internal and external threats" (338, in Druick 2006: 181).…”

“…Druick (2006) states that the postwar period was characterized by "the crisis surrounding recovery and reconstruction after a devastating war; anxieties about the return of economic depression; and a reconfigured world order" (179). While Druick (2006) argues that much of the research about the Massey Report focuses on its positive role in the funding of Canadian arts and culture (and in turn, a higher quality of Canadian life), she also points out the relationship between culture and security in the 1950s as articulated by Dowler (1996): "Culture constituted a form of defense against both internal and external threats" (338, in Druick 2006: 181). By the end of the war, Canada's international visibility had increased -the sore lack of national culture (aside from the establishment of institutions such as Canadian Broadcast Commission and the National Film Board) was perceived as "embarrassing" (Litt 1992, in Druick 2006.…”

“…While Druick (2006) argues that much of the research about the Massey Report focuses on its positive role in the funding of Canadian arts and culture (and in turn, a higher quality of Canadian life), she also points out the relationship between culture and security in the 1950s as articulated by Dowler (1996): "Culture constituted a form of defense against both internal and external threats" (338, in Druick 2006: 181). By the end of the war, Canada's international visibility had increased -the sore lack of national culture (aside from the establishment of institutions such as Canadian Broadcast Commission and the National Film Board) was perceived as "embarrassing" (Litt 1992, in Druick 2006. In order to build a profile both nationally and internationally, the report by the Royal Commission Acting as what Zolberg (1990) calls a 'support structure', which refers to the systems which "facilitate art production or abort its creations" (138), the Canada Council acts as the system of patronage of Canadian artists (as cited in Li 1994: 368).…”

Renewing imperial ties

“…62 The dependence on demotic Indigenous cultural signs to index Australian settler distinctiveness is far more extensive in the fi lm than the outline of key events suggests. 63 Appropriated signs abound in the footage: from the giant boomerang archway under which the cavalcade pass in Sydney to the all-white Australian Ballet royal performance of Corroboree , composed by John Anthill, whose works also feature in the fi lm, and performed in blackface. Those few Indigenous Australians who are featured are always performing their diff erence -by throwing boomerangs or dancing.…”

Canadian Television Today

“…While there is certainly some truth to that statement, recent revisionist history by scholars like Zoë Druick have highlighted the internationalist sentiment embedded in the final report. Druick notes that underlying the more obvious nationalist rhetoric was a concern to bring Canada onto an international stage and to support efforts by the newly formed United Nations to make culture a wide-sweeping political concern that would both strengthen sovereign countries and provide conduits toward greater cooperation on a global stage (Druick 2006). In many ways, then, what the Massey Commission did was to lay the foundations for both a publicly driven cultural sector based on the federalist ideal of the establishment of a uniquely Canadian national character, and also for later developments in multiculturalism from a deliberately liberal perspective, that is one based on individualism, open markets, and freedom of choice.…”