Adam Prudhomme
Editor
In preparation for an upcoming exhibit, staff at the Lennox and Addington Museum and Archives is seeking stories from refugees who now call this area home.
Set to arrive in the new year, the Refuge Canada exhibit will tell the stories of the refugees to Canada who landed at Halifax’s Pier 21 before being dispersed across the country.
“We’re looking to compliment that with local stories,” explains Heather Wilson, archivist with the L&A Museum. “What we’re going to do with the oral histories that we do have is we’re going to have a little listen station in the museum and there will be a couple of artifacts with that as well to help tell the stories.”
The plan is to include visuals to go with the local content as well if possible.
The museum is reaching out to anyone who arrived from another country and settled in the region, stretching from Kingston to Belleville.
“We’re collecting stories from either people who have immigrated to Lennox and Addington recently themselves or possibly their parents or even the generation before that, immigrated to the area from wherever in the world,” said Wilson. “We’re looking to collect contemporary stories of immigrants and refugees and find out what their experience is like, where was home for them, where did they come from, why did they leave, what was their experience like coming here, was it smooth, did they experience any barriers, just overall what was that experience for them. Then what has life been like since they got here.”
Wilson says the interview will explore whether the new comers to Canada already had friends and family living in the area or if they were on their own. The more contemporary the story, the better, though stories from previous generations are more than welcome.
“We would send out a list of questions to them and we’d like to meet with them in advance, talk to them and get to know their story, get to know them and they can get comfortable with us,” said Wilson. “Then they could either come into the museum here or we could sit down and pull out a recorder and have a chat and go through the questions that we have prepared in advance so they’d have an idea of what to expect coming in, or we could do it in their homes if they’re more comfortable.”
For the purposes of the project, there’s no preference for the country of origin. That being said, anyone who recently arrived from Ukraine would be of particular interest. When it comes to preserving a story for generations to come, it’s always an invaluable resource to be able to hear from an everyday person who lived through it. Too often history is told through the eyes of the influential figures of that time.
“In museums all around the country we’re all missing pieces of our story everywhere because there’s been a focus on a particular kind of story,” said Wilson. “As our country grows and more and more people come in we really want to make sure that we include them because they’re part of our community, they’re part of our story.”
Along with being featured in the upcoming exhibit, the stories will also be a valuable item to be added to the museum’s collection for future generations. It will also help to diversify the museum’s collection, telling the stories of all the residents of the community, including those who have been under represented in the past.
“We really want to tell the story of everybody in our community,” said Wilson. “It’s a diverse place and we want to make sure we’re capturing that.”
Part of that diversity includes exploring some of the traditions they have brought with them and added to the community.
Anyone interested in sharing their story can contact hwilson@lennox-addington.on.ca to set up a meeting. The story doesn’t have to be shared orally either as the museum will also accept written submissions for those who would prefer to share their history through the written word.
The goal is to gather as many stories as possible before the new year, but the project will be a continuous one that can be added to on an ongoing basis.