Inch Garvie : A Scottish Island & UK Statues of Disrepute
Inch Garvie, is Gaelic in origin and means either "rough island" or "island of the rough place" . It the perfect place to relocate the Nation's controversial statues of shame and disrepute.
last year, Bill Jamieson, writing for the Scotsman Newspaper asked,
"where do discredited statues go to die? What should we do with them? And should they be replaced by statues of more contemporary political and business figures? Should we smash the old statues into pieces? Or wheel these bird-poo splattered relics into our museums? What is their fitting end?"
Well, here seems to be an answer: House these contentious monuments on Inch Garvie island, Scotland. Relocate them collectively to a place where they can develop an educational and cultural role that serves society whist they wear away.
In the past the Inch guarded against threats and became a deterrent , licensed by the Dundas family who oversaw the construction of a fortress structure in 1491, later between 1519 and 1671, it became a prison and later after that, it was developed as a defensive position in WW1 and WW2. Therefore, let it once more help guard against societies modern threats and help deter injustice and crimes against humanity.
Let us use the 'Rough Island' to house the statues that many in society want destroyed or hidden.
Like it or not, these monuments are a part of the nation's past and therefore should not be hidden, placed in Museums or destroyed but collected and repurposed on an Island for all to see wether by boat, rail or from the shore. Let them help society recognise, develop and grow from shameful aspects of its past. Don't charge an entrance fee and commodify them, don't maintain the statues or light them. Let them be visited, let them stand in the cold sea air, let them mark an evolution in morality and human-rights.
There is something similar to this proposal, a site in Hungary, an open-air museum on the outskirts of Budapest called Memento Park, a park of fallen statues
In Memento park there are statues of Lenin, Marx, Engels and assorted Hungarian communist leaders. The park is dominated by a giant pair of Stalin’s boots – all that remained of the Soviet dictator after crowds tore down his mammoth statue in the centre of Budapest in the 1956 uprising.(B.Jamieson 2020)
Memento Park is more than a tourist attraction or cultural curiosity, It represents many compelling considerations about how best to recognise uncomfortable historic narratives and address the commemoration, memorialisation and the legacy of past crimes.
Here are a number of interesting articles, should one wish a little more context:
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