WDM To Hold Annual Heritage Day On Saturday
By Annie MacLeod
The Western Development Museum (WDM) in Moose Jaw is gearing up for its annual Heritage Day, an event that showcases the best of Saskatchewan culture while providing fun activities the whole family can enjoy.
This Saturday, February 8, from 1-4 PM, a variety of hands-on activities will be spread all throughout the museum (50 Diefenbaker Drive), so visitors can enjoy them while checking out the already impressive array of trains, planes, automobile and other artifacts featured in the WDM’s permanent galleries.
“It’s a really great way to come out and learn a little bit more about your community as well as some of the things that we do here at the WDM,” said Karla Rasmussen, Education and Public Programs Coordinator for the WDM Moose Jaw.
This year’s activities include potato sack races, creating magic mittens with water colours, butter churning and pen and ink stations.
“People can try those older ways of communicating – they can try dipping their pens in ink and typing on a typewriter,” Rasmussen explained.
Also featured will be a stereoscope, which she described as ‘old-fashioned VR or virtual reality.’
Visitors will even be able to try their hand at cow-milking; a big wooden cow by the name of Bessy.
Karla Rasmussen demonstrates an old ribbon typewriter but the focus of the event is the past - Annie MacLeod photo
“We’re a very urbanized society these days. Not many of us have had the opportunity to actually milk a cow so that’s kind of a neat thing, and adults love it just as much as children do,” Rasmussen said.
There will also be plenty of hands-on toys for kids, as well as some keepsakes that they can create themselves.
“We’re going to encourage visitors to make a button or pin that represents their heritage or what they identify with, and we’ll do a professional button for them to take home,” Rasmussen said.
There will also be scavenger hunts created especially for the day, featuring pictorial hunts for youngsters as well as more complex hunts for older youths and adults. One hunt will include a search for all of the yellow and green items, representing the colours of the provincial flag.
Participants will also be challenged to sort through a table full of artifacts to see if they can figure out which of the items originated in Saskatchewan.
“It’s a little tricky because all of the things are used in Saskatchewan but not all of them were made or pioneered here,” Rasmussen said.
She encourages even those who have previously attended the event to check it out again, as it changes every year.
“The nice thing about it that I like is that it’s a combination of hands-on activities for families, as well as an opportunity to showcase some of the other great organizations that are here in Moose Jaw, and even a little bit farther afield in Saskatchewan,” Rasmussen said.
Other organizations to be featured at the event include Sukanen Ship Pioneer Village & Museum, the New Southern Plains Metis Local 160, the Regina RCMP Heritage Centre, the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society, Heritage Saskatchewan, Moose Jaw Pride and the Claybank Brick Plant. The Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan and Réseau en immigration francophone Saskatchewan will also be a part of the festivities.
“It’s just a great day to come out and learn a little bit more about what’s available, so we hope people will be inspired to visit those other museums and cultural groups as they go about their travels this year,” Rasmussen said.
Regular museum admission applies.
For more information visit https://wdm.ca/moose-jaw/