Western Development Museum North Battleford manager Joyce Smith, left, with exhibits technician Daniel Delainey shown at the Refuge Canada Travelling Exhibit that starts Saturday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

NB show starts June 4

Refuge Canada Travelling Exhibit coming to Western Development Museum

Jun 3, 2022 | 5:00 AM

donhe stories of many refugee families who travelled to Canada to escape persecution in their homeland is the focus of a new exhibit coming to North Battleford.

The Refuge Canada Travelling Exhibit will open at the Western Development Museum this Saturday.

The large multi-media exhibit documents the lives of people from throughout the world leaving war-torn countries to find a better life and new home in Canada.

The project was created by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, in Halifax, N.S., Canada’s national museum of immigration.

“It’s a very exciting exhibit,” Western Development Museum North Battleford manager Joyce Smith said. “It deals with what a refugee experiences coming to Canada.”

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She said the exhibit draws on several themes, starting with what life was like for the refugees before they came to Canada.

“People don’t realize that they had a normal life before they became refugees,” she said.

The show also talks about the fear refugees feel, and the displacement they experience having to leave their home with nothing, to come to a new country they don’t know anything about.

The exhibit also tells the story of the refugees’ new life in Canada they are building once they arrive here, and what supports Canada offers them.

The exhibit visited a number of communities so far on its tour. Before making a stop in the Battlefords, it was being shown in Saskatoon.

Smith said the project is also interactive. One display features actual airplane seats so visitors can imagine what the refugees’ experienced fleeing their homeland.

“You can sit on an airplane seat and see a story about coming to Canada on an airplane,” she said. “There are stories about coming to Canada on a boat because a lot of refugees over the years have come [here] in very small boats, without a lot of goods or anything”

Smith added the exhibit aims to help people better understand the refugee struggle. And with so many Ukrainians coming to Canada now, to escape Russia’s attacks on their home country, the exhibit especially hits home.

“Right now, with our current refugee crisis it’s very pertinent to the world,” Smith said.

Canadian Museum of Immigration Curator at Pier 21 Dan Conlin said in a news release that Canada has had a mixed record in welcoming refugees, “reacting generously to some,” while overlooking others.

“Refuge Canada provides the context for Canada’s place in the global refugee crisis and brings to light the challenges faced by refugees in Canada,” he said. “The exhibition also shares stories of success and contributions made by people who came to Canada as refugees.”

The exhibit runs from June 4 to Aug. 27. An official reception scheduled for June 7 at 1 p.m., will include a guest speaker who is also a refugee.

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angela.brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW