by Jenifer Milner

This is the first of a two-part article examining how the arts have helped people find, strengthen, and celebrate identity and heritage.

Sometime before 550 B.C., Plutarch exhorted us to "Know thyself". Yet each generation struggles to answer the question, Who am I?

This simple phrase asks us to define a complex reality. Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano describes identity as "the endlessly astonishing synthesis of the contradictions of every day."1 Throughout the ages, individuals and communities have turned to the arts for a sense of identity and history. And it is through the arts that many still find "a map to self-discovery".2

In Writing for Your Life, Deena Metzger states "...self-discovery is more than gathering information about oneself." She says, "In the process of...discovering our story, we restore those parts of ourselves that have been scattered, hidden, suppressed, denied, distorted, forbidden, and we come to understand that stories heal."3

Metzger could have written this sentence about Frannie Sheridan, a Vancouver-based actor. In 1995, Sheridan wrote and performed The Waltonsteins, a one-woman, one-act play based on her family story. Since then, she has refined and toured the production, has added a second act, and has written a screenplay. "The Waltonsteins is about shame," she says, "and the damage of being forced to deny one's own identity."

Sheridan's parents, Bernie and Leisel Sigal, were Holocaust survivors who met and married in Canada following World War II. A racist attack in 1951 triggered Bernie's fears, eventually leading to a total denial of the family's Jewish heritage, including a change of name and faith. Sheridan was raised a Catholic in Ottawa, unaware of her roots until age nine, when her father revealed the family secret.

He cautioned her never to tell anyone.

In the mid-1980s, Sheridan wandered into Toronto's Holocaust Centre in turmoil. This marked the start of a journey towards reclaiming her Jewish identity, although she would not reveal the truth on stage for years. Asking her father to understand, Sheridan declared in a letter, "...I am going to write and perform our family's story." "I'm sorry," she wrote, "but this is important if I am to find out who I am."

Today, Sheridan calls The Waltonsteins "the key to putting the puzzle together." She says, "It's given me a sense of sanity, of validity as an artist, of reality...and it's allowed me to heal. It's also been terrific for my family"-all of whom have changed as a result of Sheridan telling their story.

Visual artist Mia Weinberg shares things in common with Sheridan: she is the child of survivors of the Holocaust; she lives with the fear of being openly Jewish; and she examines related issues through her art. The women are also friends.

"My art practice is integral to the exploration and understanding of my personal history and identity," says Weinberg. In an artist statement from her installation Fractured Legacy, she talks about references in her work to cultural displacement, bridging between generations, and reconfiguring identity.

Weinberg's Fractured Legacy resulted in her recognizing her Germanic heritage-something she had never admitted to before, even though her family had lived in Germany for centuries. And she says her work has moved her to a different place, one where she is "more comfortable about being Jewish."

Weinberg's explorations have led her to believe that "issues of displacement and dislocation touch us all, both as individuals and as a society." Feeling displaced and dislocated intensifies people's confusion about identity. Nadine Gordimer, a South African writer, has watched people leave her country, then attempt to re-integrate themselves. She says, "I think it was Jean-Paul Sartre who said, 'If you go into exile, you lose your place in the world.' I believe he meant an inner world as well."4

We have witnessed the rise of a rootless generation-the legacy of immigration, exile, and mobility. The arts have a role to play in helping individuals determine who they are, producing a benefit that ripples through society. "Discovering who we are as individuals is impossible without discovering what it means to be human."

Jenifer Milner directs communications for the International Council on Active Aging. Since 1992, Jenifer has worked in Vancouver’s arts and cultural sector, most recently as communications manager with the Greater Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture for almost five years.

1. Eduardo Galeano. The Book of Embraces. W.W. Norton, 1991.
2. Gabrielle Roth and John Loudon. Maps to Ecstasy-Teachings of an Urban Shaman. Nataraj Publishing, 1989.
3. Deena Metzger. Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds. Harper San Francisco, 1992.
4. Eleanor Wachtel. Writers & Company. Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1993.
5. Robert Grudin. The Grace of Great Things: Creativity and Innovation. Ticknor & Fields, 1990.

Last Updated: Tuesday, August 24, 2004