Abstract

This thesis investigates how embroideries and textiles that are collected and exhibited within Serbian Canadian homes and museums serve to develop a sense of national identity. By conducting two case studies, involving The Serbian Heritage Museum, created by Serbian immigrants in Windsor, Ontario, and the Jancovic family collection, an intergenerational family collection in Montreal, Quebec, this research will analyze their archived textiles, curatorial texts, and interviews. Comparing these collections to the work of The Republic of Serbia Ministry of Culture and Information’s work with UNESCO, which aims to define a sense of national identity
to combat the perceived risk of obsolescence as a result of the growing impact of globalization, reveals how immigrant communities develop their own identities in comparison to governmental bodies. In exploring these three forms of identity building within Serbian communities, one can observe how heritage crafts gradually come to function as commodities rather than artifacts within certain institutional settings, while also increasingly catering to the nostalgia of a pre-industrial pastoral life. Through this threefold examination of Serbian national identity, this thesis will analyze the malleable affiliations of tradition and authenticity, as well as the shifting
roles of tool, artifact, and commodity placed upon folk art in identity building contexts.