Documents influence how we interact with collective memory in complex ways. In this paper, I argue that the ways individuals and communities relate through documents lends support to an intersubjective view of collective memory. I also contend that documents help to explain flexibility in collective memory. I demonstrate this phenomenon at work in documents used by the United Church of Canada (UCC) in its reconciliation work with Indigenous peoples.
Collective memories often start with an event. When that event ends, the space in which it occurred is preserved as the locus of the resulting collective memories. Collective memory is relatively easy to discuss in the context of these spaces, whether they exist at the actual location that is memorialized or at a remove as monuments, museums, or archives. However, collective memory does not stop at the doorways of these spaces. It accompanies us home. Recognizing this speaks to the debate within collective memory studies articulated by Jeffrey Olick in 2007. Some suggest that collective memory is the aggregate of individual memories, while others claim that collective representations are distinct from individuals.
I argue that documents encourage the sharing of memories amongst individuals. This reflects Paul Ricoeur's use of narrative identity to explain how shared stories become the community's. Shared stories can also cause a rethinking of one's own story. This creates an elasticity in collective memory. Drawing on document theory, I show how documents encourage this nuanced sharing of memory through the echoing or repeating of events, ideas, and perspectives beyond their point of origin in the world. This happens in three stages: first, a phenomenon is captured in the form of a document. In an act of indexing, the phenomenon is reduced to a representation that points to the original phenomenon. Next, a document is preserved, referenced, compiled, reformatted, or copied and distributed. Here, the indexed phenomenon is passed through space and time, often changed slightly or integrated into new documents. Finally, a document is encountered, usually through reading, once the phenomenon is indexed.
As documents go through this process, they move the original phenomenon out into the world and anchor it in disparate ways. The common point of reference indexed by a group of documents is what supports collective memory. Each iteration of the document or its references slightly changes the index's relationship to the event. Each encounter with an iteration may be interpreted differently. Every step, then, enlarges and potentially alters the collective framework around the phenomenon.
We see this process at work in the UCC's reconciliation work. Over nearly four decades, the church has undergone a change in its collective identity. That transition can be traced to an event-its 1986 Apology to Indigenous Peoples-that was documented, copied and distributed in the form of a memorial cairn, plaques, and paper and digital documents, and now is referenced in the documents the church uses to encourage reconciliation. The church's documents echo the apology, pointing to the event while allowing for nuanced narratives to form around it.
