BREAKING THE CHAINS OF OPPRESSION
HAITI DEFINES G-G
OTTAWA • There were glimpses of personal history in her installation address, hints about her style and personality in the music, the demeanour, the flowers, the fashion.
But Michaëlle Jean’s new coat of arms — unveiled during a private session at her adopted Rideau Hall home following yesterday’s investiture ceremony — offered Canadians the most concise distillation of their new Governorself- image.
And what’s clear from her heraldic calling card is that Ms. Jean’s heritage as a Haitian-born descendant of slaves on the Caribbean island she left as a child still dominates her identity 37 years later.
There’s a palm tree. Two mermaids. A sand dollar. Three conch shells.
And, most poignantly, a broken chain around a large shell at the crest of the coat of arms, signifying the hard-won freedom of her ancestors and her own family’s escape to Canada from a despotic regime in modern- day Haiti.
There are symbolic nods to vice-regal tradition and to her life in Canada as well. The palm tree is paired with a pine. There’s the requisite crown, symbolic of her figurehead role in Canada’s constitutional monarchy, and the snowflake insignia of the Order of Canada, the system of honours administered by the GovernorGeneral’s office.
Underlying the array of elements illustrating her past and present life is a classic Canadian challenge for the future: the motto “Briser les solitudes” (“Breaking down the solitudes”) — a clear reference to the enduring French-English divide in Ms. Jean’s adopted homeland and to her stated mission to serve as a cultural bridge during her time as Governor-General.
“ It’s pretty standard for a Governor- General,” said Christopher McCreery, author of a new history of the Order of Canada and critic of several traditionflouting decisions at Rideau Hall during the tenure of Adrienne Clarkson.
“I think it looks fine. It’s very different, unique in its own way. But there’s nothing alarming.”
The sand dollar on the central shield of the coat of arms is said to represent the Governor- General’s “special talisman.” Supporting the shield on each side are two “Simbis” from Haitian folklore — fish-tailed female water spirits who appear to be poised to sound an alarm on the shells they’re holding.
“ The Simbis’ words are enlightening and soothing,” says a description on the GovernorGeneral’s Web site. “ These two feminine figures symbolize the vital role played by women in advancing social justice.”
A major influence in the creation of Ms. Jean’s coat of arms is Marron Inconnu, a sculpture by Haitian artist Albert Mangones located in the centre of the capital city, Port au Prince, her birthplace. It depicts “an escaped slave blowing a conch shell to gather and call to arms his fellow sufferers around the whole island,” the website says. “For Michaelle Jean this image evokes the victory of her ancestors over barbarism and, more broadly, the call to liberty.”
Previous governors-general — like most citizens who apply for armorial bearings — used their coats of arms to encapsulate aspects of ethnic origin and family history.
Ms. Clarkson’s spoke to her ethnic roots among the Toysan and Hakka people in Southern China and her birthplace, Hong Kong.
Roméo LeBlanc’s coat of arms had an Acadian star at its centre and was framed by two dolphins, which represented his family’s 17th-century homesteading in the Maritimes.
Ray Hnatyshyn’s represented his parents’ roots in the Bukovina region of Ukraine