Thank you to our speakers!

The Museum hosted three stimulating local speakers in March, who presented on topics relevant to our current exhibit, "A Sense of the Land and its People: A Personal Collection".

Archbishop John Clarke spoke of growing up in Moose Factory, James Bay, Ontario and the 18 years he spent as a clergyman in the diocese of Moosonee. He worked with the community to develop education and training  opportunities for residents in this northern region. He brought cultural objects from these early years and fondly spoke of the people who created them. Some were given as gifts or, like the pair of Inuit dolls, gifted to his father in much earlier times.

Archbishop Clarke shows the audience some of the First Nations artifacts he has from his years in Ontario. 

Lyle Fullerton, of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, began with an historical overview of the buffalo in northern Alberta. He then described the current status of the population in and around Wood Buffalo National Park. His work monitoring the health and the habitat of these herds over the past 22 years makes him a most informative and engaging speaker. He even brought a leg bone from a buffalo recently killed by a wolf to demonstrate the shear size of these animals. Lyle has been asked to return for an update presentation this fall.

Lyle Fullerton speaks about buffalo herds with YL, the Museum's buffalo head, in the background. 

Roger spoke to an appreciative crowd, mainly artists themselves, about how his Cree culture influences the imagery he uses in his paintings. His years of work includes designing the current Northern Lakes College logo, 12 murals in the town of McLennan and works regularly featured in Alberta Native News. You can still see a selection of Roger's paintings at the Museum until April 17th, 2014. He calls the exhibit "My Cree People - the Sacred Circle". These works are for sale.

Roger Noskiye speaking about his art. Photo courtesy of Sharon Krushel. 

The Museum extends a very big thank you to all of our speakers and all those who attended the presentations.

Please stay tuned to our blog for information about our upcoming Speakers Series in May. We are in the process of firming up plans now and will bring that information to you soon!

March Speaker Series - Roger Noskiye speaks this Saturday about his art

Roger Noskiye makes his home on the Whitefish Lake first Nation 459 at Atikameg in northern Alberta. He started drawing and whittling as a child and his interest in art was supported at the Northland Elementary School in Atikameg.  He says he ‘drew his way through middle school’ and carried on with his schooling at Grande Prairie Regional College where he finished a visual arts program and from there transferred to New Mexico where he received a scholarship of $75,000 through his art in 1992. Unfortunately, in those days the Band was unable to help him stay and study further so he returned home and today continues to work with his art and his culture.  The Town of McLennan commissioned Roger to paint 12 murals on town buildings and he created a mural for the Lakeland Eagles Hockey club too.

The Alberta Native News featured Roger’s art on the cover in December, 2011 and included a story about his work and his journey as an artist.

Roger will be at the Museum, Saturday, March 22, 2014 between 2 and 4pm painting and talking about his work and how his culture inspires the images he uses.  He will have some works on exhibit and for sale.

This painting, by Roger Noskiye, is titled "Tea Dance". 

Artist of the Month - Dianne Ireland

This month at the Museum, we are featuring the works of Dianne Ireland on the Art Wall. Her acrylic and raw hide works range in topic from scenery to sports to dancing to portraits.

Dianne was born in Peace River and grew up on a farm east of Grimshaw. She and Jim married in 1968 and have children and grand-children to fill their lives.

Dianne has always been interested in art and drawing; she added to that passion for art in the 1970s when she first started painting with acrylic on raw hide. Since then she has taken various Bob Ross oil painting classes and more recently watercolours with Willie Wong.

Having used the mediums of oils, acrylics and watercolours, Dianne can conclusively say that working with oils are her favourites.

The Museum is open from 10 am - 5 pm, Monday through Saturday, there is no fee to view Dianne's work.

March Museum Speaker Series: Lyle Fullerton talks about buffalo this Saturday

Continuing on with our March speaker series, we bring you Lyle Fullerton this Saturday (March 15, 2014) at 2 pm. Lyle is the Special Projects Coordinator, Fish and Wildlife, with Environment and Sustainable Resource Development.

Lyle will be talking to us about buffalo: their history, herd management, herd health, and Wood Buffalo National Park. This park was classified in 1983 as a UNESCO world heritage site and further classified as a Dark Sky Preserve in 2013. This promises to be an engaging and interesting presentation from a speaker who is both passionate and knowledgeable about his subject.

The second of three talks in our March speaker series, Lyle's subject relates to our current exhibit "A Sense of the Land and its People - A Personal Collection". This collection, composed entirely of Plains and Northwest Coast First Nations objects from Dr. David Welch, tells the story of the environments that helped and hindered the lives of First Nations peoples. The buffalo played an essential role in the Plains First Nations' lifestyle, providing them with meat, bone tools, hide, furs and many other resources.

Join us this Saturday, March 15th at 2 pm for an engaging afternoon of talk and discussion. 

A buffalo partial skull on display at the Museum. 

March speaker series at the Museum: Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the first in the Museum's March speaker series. This series supports our current exhibit entitled "A Sense of the Land and its People - A Personal Collection". This exhibit is a collection of Plains and Northwest Coast First Nations objects collected by Dr. David Welch over the last 50 years.

The first in the series features Archbishop John Clarke, a local theologian, who will speak of his childhood in Moose Factory, on James Bay in Ontario as well as his 18 years in the diocese of Moosonee. Archbishop Clarke joins us at 7 pm tomorrow night (Thursday, March 6) at the Museum.

This event is free for all to attend. Please join us.

St. James Cathedral, the congregation of which is one of 33 congregations in the Diocese of Athabasca. The diocese, for which Archbishop John Clarke was responsible, is scattered over an area more than 317, 000 square kilometres. 

Archbishop John Clarke: First in the Museum's Speaker Series on Thursday March 6, 7 pm

After 45 years in church ministry, Anglican Archbishop John Clarke was, in his words, “put out to pasture” the end of April 2009, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Although retired, Archbishop Clarke continues to be active in the workings of the Anglican Church, especially in the Diocese of Athabasca of which St. James Cathedral is part and in which he ministered for 25 years.

As the first speaker in the Peace River Museum, Archives and Mackenzie Centre’s March Speakers Series, Archbishop Clarke will share his early years in Moose Factory, Ontario (on James Bay) and his pride in being involved in the community of Moosonee across the Moose River. There, he took part in the construction of the James Bay Education Centre and the first high school on James Bay. “Because I really believe education is the key in the North,” he told a reporter for the Anglican Journal prior to his retirement.

The construction of the centre and high school “gave local inhabitants the opportunity to take their rightful place in the development of their communities. Young graduates became social workers, plumbers, electricians, nurses etc. Previously, all skilled trades and professions were imported from the south.”

He added, “having been sent away from Moose factory when I was 10 years old for a year at a residential school, I made a promise to my wife (Nadia) that we would not send our children away from home to go to school.”

Come to the Museum, Thursday March 6, 2014, 7 p.m. to hear the rest of the story told by Archbishop John Clarke, as engaging a speaker as one could ever find. His approach has been described as “folksy”. Come, hear for yourself. This event is free for all to attend.