The Royal Saskatchewan Museum is making a change to one of its First Nations displays.
The museum recently unveiled some new panels for its Tipi Encampment display. John Snell who oversees exhibits and programming for the museum explained to MBC Radio News many of the museum’s displays which are part of their First Nations gallery are over 25 years old and in need of an update.
“We’re very proud of it, but it is old, it’s getting past 25 years old now and so some of the language that was appropriate 25 years ago is no longer appropriate and some of the ideas and concepts are starting to date out a little bit,” he said.
The new panels at the Tipi Encampment display are a part of this effort. Snell said people will not only notice that the new panels look nicer, but will also see that they have some writing on them which was not present before.
“We include English, French and Plains Cree, because it shows a Plains Cree encampment,” he said.
Snell said adding Plains Cree to the panels was something they thought would be helpful in regards to engaging the larger community. He added the museum has been seeing more people coming through its doors who are interested in the Cree language.
“(We’ve got) More and more people coming in, where we’re having more people who are interested in learning Cree or are Cree speakers,” he said.
The new panels for the Tipi Encampment display are not the first ones the museum has unveiled which feature the Cree language. Snell said the museum’s Home exhibit as well has display panels in the three languages.
Going forward Snell said they are planning to do similar updates to other First Nations displays at the museum. He said making the changes will take some time and that consultations will be done with the communities being depicted.
“As we move forward we’re going to update the language, we’re going to make sure that we’re incorporating modern ideas, everything we do we’ll be working with the different communities to make sure we’re getting concepts and ideas right,” he said.
(Top Photo: The Royal Saskatchewan Museum’s Tipi Encampment display after the old panels were removed. Photo courtesy of Royal Sask. Museum X/Twitter.)