2- Locating Musical Heritage: Animating community music heritage in the postcolonial village - Heather Horak, Carleton University

Heritage as a concept and a practice is both celebrated and problematized in modern discourse. Rodney Harrison, author of Heritage: Critical Approaches(2013) calls heritage “a broad and slippery term”, and a survey of definitions from the heritage sector would support his argument. Against the backdrop of heritage debates, how can we define musical heritage, how do we locate it, and how can we teach about it? This paper examines such questions in the context of localized music heritage in Wakefield, Quebec. A report on musical heritage programming internship at the Fairbairn House Heritage Centre in Wakefield, QC, this paper presents a brief review local geography, demographics and history as pertains to ‘locating’ musical heritage. It looks at the heritage activities and challenges that Fairbairn is engaged in against a backdrop of critical reflections on the heritage industry, concepts about heritage, and post-colonial challenges. It reviews the program that employed an integration of methodologies from liberationist pedagogy and traditional public education/museology, hands-on participatory arts and crafts activities, and a hybrid of ethnomusicological participant-observer and community music-making methodology. Finally offers reflections on the experience, and results of the research involved in its preparation, creation and delivery. Presentation of this paper will involve audience engagement in some of the activities that were employed in the program as well as music samples, photos, and sound bites from program as it was delivered.