July 04, 2012 | Tips from Travellers >
Fort St. John, Museums
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Since the travelling British Home Child Memory Quilt Exhibit is currently at the Fort St. John Museum, I went down to check it out while I had the opportunity to. Although the North Peace Museum mainly has local history of the pioneer days, it is wonderful that travelling exhibits frequent the museum to share a broader history with local residents and visitors. Whenever I visit our local museum, I always leave with a ton more historic knowledge about events that I didn’t even know existed.
Today, I sauntered out of the museum feeling surprised, shocked, and somewhat oblivious to pieces of Canada’s history that I was completely unaware of. The British Home Child Memory Quilt defiantly opened my eyes to a small portion of Canada’s immigration past. I discovered that not all of the 100,000 British orphans who came to Canada in search for a better life actually received one. Although there were stories of abuse, poor working conditions, and loneliness for many of the British home children, there were also uplifting tales of the many opportunities Canada provided these children. I took the time to appreciate and read each square of the hand-crafted quilt since each piece had a different child’s story or picture. The friendly staff at the North Peace Museum also played the accompanying documentary called “Nobody’s Child” for me so that I could soak in even more history. The British Home Child Memory Quilt Exhibit is moves onto another community at the start of September, so find the time in the next two months to go see this memorable exhibit!