This article is about the suicide of the chief of police of a small Canadian town, which - according to some - did not actually happen. While employed as a researcher and writer with a museum in Port Moody, British Columbia, the author heard this story as one of many told by the ‘old-timers’ who assisted with the writing of a history book. The controversy over the potential suicide provided the means by which this article reflects on issues of ethics, advocacy, and performance when doing public history. The main request of the old-timers was to ‘put the good stories in’ when writing the book. This expectation caused tension between the author and the museum, reflecting the divide between doing ‘history’ and ‘heritage’. This article draws on Anthropological theories of ‘complicity’ and performance in storytelling to make sense of the author’s role within the context of a museum working to record the stories of long-time residents. The stories of the old-timers were filtered through the lens of early 20 th century ideas about gender, race, and class, and affected by a lingering frontier mentality. As such, they wished to see their town’s history told in a very specific way. The story of the police chief’s suicide betrayed this intent, allowing for an analysis of how these expectations can affect the way in which public history is done.

中文翻译：

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引起骚动：穆迪港故事中的共谋与表现

这篇文章是关于加拿大一个小镇的警察局长的自杀事件，据某些人称，自杀事件实际上并未发生。在不列颠哥伦比亚省穆迪港的一家博物馆受聘为研究人员和作家时，作者听到了这个故事，这是“老人们”讲述的许多故事之一，他们协助编写了一本历史书。有关潜在自杀的争论为本文提供了一种手段，使人们可以在反思公共历史时反思道德，倡导和表现等问题。老朋友的主要要求是在写书时“讲好故事”。这种期望引起了作者和博物馆之间的紧张关系，反映了在“历史”和“遗产”之间的鸿沟。本文借鉴人类学的“共谋”理论和叙事表现，以理清作者在一个博物馆中的角色，该博物馆致力于记录长期居民的故事。二十世纪初期有关性别，种族和阶级的观念的镜头过滤了旧时代的故事，并受到缠绵的边境思想的影响。因此，他们希望以一种非常具体的方式看到自己镇上的历史。警察局长自杀的故事背叛了这个意图，从而可以分析这些期望如何影响完成公共历史的方式。并受到缠绵的边境思想的影响。因此，他们希望以一种非常具体的方式看到自己镇上的历史。警察局长自杀的故事背叛了这个意图，从而可以分析这些期望如何影响完成公共历史的方式。并受到缠绵的边境思想的影响。因此，他们希望以一种非常具体的方式看到自己镇上的历史。警察局长自杀的故事背叛了这个意图，从而可以分析这些期望如何影响完成公共历史的方式。