Interpreting deindustrialised landscapes of Atlantic Canada: memory and industrial heritage in Sackville, New Brunswick

The redevelopment of former industrial sites now constitutes a significant component of the landscape of Atlantic Canada. This paper explores the heritage issues surrounding two industrial sites in Sackville, New Brunswick, and argues that the heritage discourse is constructed through the creation of memory and the processes of commodification and consumption. Using the examples of two foundries, the paper investigates the manner in which the image of industry has been presented and reinterpreted, both through the industrial heydays of the late-19th and mid-20th centuries and in the contemporary scene. The commemoration, commodification and consumption of selected aspects of the industrial past are significant means by which Sackville creates its place identity. The resulting landscapes remain problematic, however, with a tendency to be overly romanticised and sanitised or at odds with contemporary images of Sackville's place identity.