The Alberta Arts Sector can play a Vital Role in the current Referendum Conversation

by Simon Mallett 

I recently attended an event packed with people who care deeply about this province and this country to listen to a panel about national perspectives on Alberta separation. A call to action that emerged was for those in leadership roles to speak out in support of national unity, noting that now was not the time to hedge bets. I left feeling both challenged and inspired, and so my response to that call is this unapologetic declaration: I believe fully and proudly that Alberta belongs in Canada. And furthermore, I believe the arts community, of which I am a proud member, has a vital role to play in vocally making that case at this pivotal time. 

On October 19th of this year, Albertans will be asked whether this province should pursue sovereignty - a separation from the country that has shaped our identity, nurtured our culture, and given our stories a place in the world. This is not an abstract policy question; it is a question about who we are, where we come from, and how we relate to each other. And I believe it is precisely the kind of relational question that the arts have always been best equipped to answer. 

This land has a rich artistic history. Every square kilometre of this province is treaty territory, from Treaty 7 in the south, to Treaty 6 in the centre, to Treaty 8 in the north. The Indigenous peoples of this land, the Blackfoot Confederacy, Cree, Nakoda, Dene, Métis, and many others, have sustained a vibrant and living artistic culture here for thousands of years, long before any treaty was signed. Those signed treaties are living agreements made with the Crown and with Canada, not Alberta, and the relationship between this land's First Peoples and this country is older and deeper than any political grievance. Artistic traditions of Indigenous peoples are woven into the fabric of this land, just as the obligations of the treaties are woven into the fabric of this nation. 

Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien observed that “the vitality of our culture and heritage is one of the strongest signs of our collective success." That vitality is the connective tissue of the nation, a constant source of collective pride in Canadian artists and artistic accomplishments to which Alberta has contributed mightily. Joni Mitchell honed her craft in Calgary before her songs became the soundtrack to a generation, W.O. Mitchell's Who Has Seen the Wind is one of the great literary portraits of this land, and Cold Lake First Nations artist Alex Janvier spent a lifetime painting the story of his people across generations. These are Alberta stories, and they are Canadian stories. And just as these stories have played a defining role in the history of this province, so too must artists tell their stories to define its future. 

Art has the unique power to make people feel what policy papers cannot: the warmth of belonging, the cost of loss, the beauty of a shared identity. A song, a painting, a play; they do not argue for unity, they demonstrate it. Art shows us what we hold in common across borders of language, geography, lived experience, and opinion. In a moment when Albertans are being asked to imagine a future apart from Canada, the arts can be the most powerful reminder of what that future would leave behind, not the least of which is the shared pride in a country that, for all its imperfections, has given its artists the freedom to tell hard truths and be celebrated for doing so. 

The need for the arts in this context feels so present to me. When the United Kingdom, my country of birth, voted to leave the EU in 2016, nearly 300 high-profile artists and cultural figures signed an open letter to support the 'Remain' cause, and the Creative Industries Federation found that 96 percent of its members wanted to stay in the EU. And yet apathy, especially among young voters who were not engaged and did not realize what was at stake, brought about an unexpected result that the arts community has been reckoning with ever since. The National Theatre's My Country, built from testimonies gathered in the days following the Brexit vote, gave voice to those who grieved the outcome, but the conversation came too late to change anything. Alberta's artists, performers, and cultural organizations cannot afford to make the same mistakes. We cannot dismiss the very real feelings or downplay the numbers of those who believe Alberta would be better on its own, or attempt to gloss over the profound and irreversible consequences that would accompany separation. We do so at our own peril. We must engage, speak, and fight for the future we believe in, and we must not wait to do it. 

Concerts, gallery openings, spoken word nights, community murals, short films, theatre productions, every creative platform is an opportunity to combat apathy and help Albertans find and use their voices to speak to the future they want to be part of. Calgary-born artist Jann Arden has already said it plainly: "I believe in Alberta being much better as part of Canada, one of the best countries in the world to live in. We have issues that we need to sort out, but we need to do that together." 

We must not let grievance masquerade as destiny. Alberta's musicians, storytellers, visual artists, and cultural organizations must stand together and use our voices and our craft to say that we are Canadian, we are proud of it, and we are not willing to let that go. Canadian author Pierre Berton told a Senate committee more than fifty years ago that "we have to sing our own songs and we have to create our own heroes, dream our own dreams or we won't have a country at all." That was true then. It is true now. The time has come to make art that reminds people what is at stake, and what is worth fighting for.