Natural History Museums Nurture Local Sense of Place

This Royal Saskatchewan Museum golden eagle diorama has had quite a history. I saw it for the first time in the early 1980s. It struck me then as a vivid illustration of a land that had successfully maintained a definite sense of wilderness in the midst of massive agricultural transformation. In 1990, while the museum was undergoing major renovations, it was hit by fire. This diorama and many others were covered by black soot. The museum was closed to the public for a few months to repair the damage. The community and museum patrons pulled together, and invested in the creation of an even more ambitious set of galleries and displays that eventually yielded a spectacular First Nations Gallery.

Natural history museums play a subtle but critical role in helping shape a destination's brand identify. Their very presence in a community attests to the profound appreciation by its inhabitants of those aspects of life that enrich the local sense of place. Natural history museums highlight cultural capital and natural wealth. They are resource centres, learning opportunities for children, adults and visitors.

They are institutions tasked with the stewardship of artifact collections that researchers and citizens can enjoy in future generations. Perhaps more powerfully than other efforts, they eminently convey that private and public sector organizations are sometimes able to partner to achieve great projects. Perhaps studying what common ground was found among partners that allowed such institutions to be built might provide useful insight for all those who seek more mutually-beneficial partnerships in general.

Pilgrimage to Windy Bay, Haida Gwaii

Visiting Windy Bay on the eastern edge of Lyell Island feels a little like going on a pilgrimage. It is near here in 1985 that a group of elders from Haida communities decided to embark of a very public campaign to stop logging activities on the island, home to magnificent 100-year old trees, up to 70-meters tall. This is where the begingings of protected Haida Gwaii were hatched. Watchmen still protect the site and the longhouse-style cabin named "Looking Around and Blinking House", which they built and lived in bunk-style while events unfolded at the time. Watchmen do allow visitors in. It is a fitting prelude to any visit deeper into Lyell Island's forest.

Visiting the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, BC, Canada

From the top of their pole, Haida Watchmen who might have been on the lookout for invaders from foreign lands centuries ago are now welcoming visitors to Skidegate. Master harvesters, carvers and navigators, the Haida were true masters of the sea.

A visit at the Haida Heritage Centre in Skidegate is the best way to start seeing the world through the eyes of a very successful nation with great knowledge, elaborate trade networks, rich material culture and a wealth of traditions.

There are as many histories of Canada as there are are First Nations. If anything, the Haida have reclaimed their history in an inspiring way -- one where they are again taking control of their destiny, their resources.

They are developing a tourism industry that is based on sound stewardhip practices.

And quite frankly, the Haida are showing the world a part of Canada that most Canadians know very little about and that most will likely never see. Because, to come here and to experience Haida Gwaii the way it should be experienced requires from visitors that they be prepared to be exposed to a world that has very little to do with what most of us were led to believe Canada was like when we went to school.

My first impression of Haida Gwaii was that of a land inhabited by a people who draw their identity from the place they inhabit with great wisdom.

It seems one of the lessons I learned is that material wealth can play a positive role in how a people grounds itself in the environment which nutured it.

My visit to the Haida Heritage Centre certainly opened my eyes. I'm OK with that. I am just along for the journey... just as long as I learn a little bit more every day from those I share my journey with.

Libraries and Museums Offer Gems for Genealogists

With Memorial Day coming up next month and ever warming days, genealogists can now get out for those fun family history research trips.

The Williamson County Historical Society operates a great research library in their Jail Museum at 105 S. Van Buren Street in Marion.

They are open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays, as well as open until 8 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. Tours of the museum are given on Thursdays with the last tour starting at 2 p.m.

In Herrin the expanded city library has developed a great local history room under the guidance of retired high school librarian Linda Banks. The library honored her last Sunday by naming the room the after her.

The Herrin City Library is located at 120 N. 13th St., one block east of Park Avenue which is Route 148.

The Frankfort Area Genealogy Society also operates another major local research library in the old Logan School in Frankfort Heights on the east side of West Frankfort at 2000 E. St. Louis St.

It's open on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Although located in Franklin County this museum and library includes a lot of information about Williamson County, particularly the north portion the county. Historically, Williamson County was a part of Franklin from 1818 to 1839.

The genealogical collection of the Genealogy Society of Southern Illinois is available for researchers at the John A. Logan College library in Carterville.

Other good sites for research include the following:

• Morris Library, SIU-Carbondale
  
• Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Carbondale
  
• Saline County Genealogy Society's Library, Harrisburg City Hall (open weekday mornings)