EDITED: Monument's of Shame...Yes a sweeping declaration and fairly dramatic... I am aware

We chose the graves based on what we could state with clarity. The back of the cemetery has an area that is filled with Chineese and other graves that were either moved there for specific reasons sat in their original context. The graves we chose gave a good overall view of what was in the cemetery without having to document them all. Some were clearly marked and had been restored, others were clearly left to disintegrate but held a deep and rich history. We chose to look at the memorial monuments dedicated to war heroes and service men from Victoria as well as the some of the family graves from the late 1800's. SO in short I believe we chose a sample of graves to represent the entirely of the park/cemetery


Some of the questions that came up during our project were why were certain materials used for some and not for others? And why are some obviously taken care of, restored and re-headed and others left to natural decomposition? The main question that I became concerned with was why use sandstone at all?  It is notably used in cemeteries in Australia but it is clear it is not used as the primary material for the monuments:  “Sandstone was also used for headstones. However, most sandstone in cemeteries is used for kerbing or railing blocks or as plinths for marble headstones. Sandstone headstones are susceptible to weathering and erosion (http://jaunay.com/historic_graves.pdf)”. The climate here in Victoria is in obvious conflict with the use of such a material and the graves are a testament to that as in the Sutlej Obelisk: “ HMS Sutlej was a Royal Navy ship stationed at Esquimalt from 1863 to 1867. This obelisk was erected when the ship returned to England. The names have now crumbled away, but include those of many men who were buried at sea while serving here, plus the name of Maggie Sutlej, a First Nations orphan girl who was cared for by the wife of Admiral Denman aboard the ship (http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/cem_pn.htm).”

            Understandably the newer monuments, which were built with government dollars have no affliction to economic instability and would account for a possible reason for the sandstone being used during an earlier period. My main concern was the fact that graves are simply not cared for and as outlined in the article “Historic South Australian Graves and Cemeteries” it is plainly outlined that, “[c]emeteries and graves are important as both social and aesthetic elements of a community and they tell an important part of its story. Sometimes they are the only record of a group or settlement. Cemeteries therefore are commemorative landscapes of memory and history (http://jaunay.com/historic_graves.pdf)”. This is simply not the case in Pioneer Square. There is an overbearing, prominent feature that is the focal point of the space and, however kindly dedicated, to war heroes it is not impervious to the fact that the history is lost to the layman’s observation. Why are some memorials and gravesites so well tended to and the others lost in environmental obliteration? The one that bothered me the most was the Charles Rufus Robinson Grave: “Only the base of a much larger monument remains on Robson’s grave. While commander of the gunboat Forward in 1860 he rescued the crews of two ships off the west coast of Vancouver Island, but less than a year later he died after falling off his horse in Victoria. A carved broken mast, symbolizing a sailor’s life cut short, once stood above the pedestal

(http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/cem_pn.htm).” How wonderful would that be to have restored. Instead it is nothing more than misshapen block of sandstone covered in environmental debris.

            The questions left unanswered could be sought out by going to the Victoria Historical society to find out why there are so many graves left unattended and why the sandstone was used but I have a feeling that the answer is a financial one in both regards.

The context of the graves are left for the layman only to presuppose that the ones taken care of are important while the ones left to essentially rot are not. What about the people that are buried there that is not even represented? Unless one were to go to the Victoria archives one would not know what history lies beneath.

            And why? WHY?! Use sandstone….!? It makes no sense. Besides a financial benefit or a lack of understanding of the materials, this anthropology student is left perplexed!

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=216867271032167791830.0004b8a259463316b79f4&msa=0&ll=48.42392%2c-123.360015&spn=0.000913%2c0.001966&iwloc=0004b8b80e9d53eaea152

Works Cited

McDougall and Vines, 2004, Historic Southern Australian Graves and Cemeteries, Conservation Guidelines, Department for Environment and Heritage. http://jaunay.com/historic_graves.pdf. February 17th, 2012. 

Old Cemeteries Society of Victoria, Pioneer Square. http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/cem_pn.htm, February 12th, 2012.