The Healing Garden in St. Albert



WORKING TOGETHER TO EDUCATE AND REMEMBER. 

The Musée Héritage Museum has been working alongside the United Church and City staff planning a place to remember the children that were taken from their families and placed residential schools. There were two residential schools in the region, the Youville Home on Mission Hill and the Edmonton Industrial School located near River Lot 56.

At our 2015 Father's Day Food Truck event we had children and their families make a heart flower to plant at the Healing Garden site, located on the north side of the Sturgeon River, across from City Hall.  Children from the St. Albert United Church started planting the heart garden on Sunday June 21 and then museum staff added the hearts they had collected at the special event.

Heart gardens are being planted across Canada and…."The goal is to honour children lost to the Indian Residential School system and mark new possibilities in reconciliation."  To discover more about this project visit http://www.kairoscanada.org/events/time4reconciliation/heart-gardens/

We invite you to stop by the Musee Heritage Museum to make your own heart flower to add to the garden! 

June 21, 2015 food truck event at the St. Albert Grain Elevator park

On Sunday June 21, 2015 the St. Albert Grain Elevator Historic site hosted eleven local food trucks and more than 3000 people!  

Father's Day, National Aboriginal Day and the longest day of the year were all celebrated as our visitors enjoyed sunshine and a variety of food choices.

A lot of four legged family members enjoyed the day as well!

Making hearts to place at the new Healing Garden site in St. Albert.

Face Painting station

Grain elevator tours of both the 1906 and 1929 elevators led by our interpreters.

Food trucks all lined up and very busy

Live music all day long!

And an old fashioned Penny Carnival for the children.

A really great day at the historic site!

 Join us for Canada Day celebrations from 11am until 4pm on July 1, 2015 and do not forget to mark Friday August 28 on your calendars because the food trucks will be on the site once again from 5pm until 9pm!

More summer student introductions-Meet Jia Jia!

Hello! My name is Jia Jia. I’m the Project Archivist this summer at the Musée Héritage Museum in St. Albert.  My job is partially funded by the Federal Young Canada Works grant program which assists students to gain work experience, related to their degree programs, during the summer months.  I’m currently working towards my Master of Library and Information Studies degree at the University of Alberta. Just one year left! I’m thrilled to be a part of the Musée Héritage Museum team this summer and I’m learning a lot about archives and about the history and community of St. Albert.

The Musée Héritage Museum’s focus on outreach is one thing that I really love. Especially because we archivists are often "closeted" in a windowless back rooms and whenever we discover anything interesting, we are largely excited about our discoveries all on our own. However, outreach and programming, exhibitions and events, even this blog, all are chances for us to share with you what we’ve discovered and what we’re excited about.

My main project this summer is to process the records of Brigadier-General Raymond Brutinel. He was a fascinating man who commanded the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade in WWI and ran a resistance group from his home in France in WWII… that’s just a few of the highlights from his life!

The Museum has published a biography of Brutinel written by close family friends, which is full of stories, photographs, and letters by Brutinel.  I highly encourage you to check it out if you want to read a detailed account of his life (http://museeheritage.ca/shop-publications/books).

But, more than second-hand compilations and biographies, what’s most meaningful to me and what draws me to archives is the primary, first-hand evidence in the records. Brutinel’s archive contains some remarkable documents, such as a WWI interim operations report from 1918 that details military maneuvers and troop movements over a three-day period in August complete with maps and sketches. There’s a lot to discover. And I’m pleased to say that Brutinel’s archival records are being processed and will be available for researchers soon!

So if you’re curious about Brutinel, or any records in the Musée Héritage Museum’s archives please get in touch with us! You can email museum@artsandheritage.ca or check out the website at MuseeHeritage.ca.  Spend some time with the records, make discoveries, and celebrate with those of us who work in “the back room”.

Father Lacombe Chapel Provincial Historic Site 2015

An invitation and introductions from the 2015 summer interpretive staff of the Father Lacombe Chapel in St. Albert, Alberta, Canada...We are looking forward to another great season at the Father Lacombe Chapel and invite you to drop in and see us this summer for a tour or on one of our special event days!

Meet our summer staff (from left to right) Maggie, Julianna, Jasmine and Colette

We are open seven days a week from May 15, 2015 until Labour Day on September 7, 2015 and will be leading school programs through the months of May and June as well as conducting tours all summer long.  

As the summer interpreters we care for Alberta’s oldest standing building (built in 1861)and tell the stories of the people and places in this unique community using historic objects, stories and pictures. Let us show you around Mission Hill where you can see the grotto, the cemetery, the crypt and of course the Father Lacombe Chapel.  

Hello, my name is Maggie and I am a student who is passionate about the history of Alberta. I am so excited to start sharing my passion with all our visitors and enjoying the beautiful summer weather!

Bonjour, my name is Julianna Damer and I am a Franco-Albertan born in St. Albert. The history of St. Albert is very rich and fascinating and I look forward to sharing it with visitors and learning from them too!

Hello! My name is Jasmine and I’m a West Coast girl exploring Alberta’s history. I’m fascinated by the mix of nations, people and ideas that created St. Albert. Come say hi this summer!

Hi my name is Colette Bachand, I am an artist and a student enrolled in a Bachelor of Education at the University of Alberta. I can trace up to five generations of my family living in and around the St. Albert area, and this year I am excited to share these historical stories with you at the Father Lacombe Chapel. I look forward to teaching the next generation about their roots and have them experience it by tasting bannock, touching beaver pelts and singing traditional voyageur songs.

Introducing the St. Albert Grain Elevator site summer staff!

The St. Albert Grain Elevator Park (SAGE) heritage site opened on the Victoria Day long weekend in May.  We hope you will drop by this summer season to check out some of the coolest buildings in all of St. Albert!  Each week, the site will be open to the public from Wednesday to Sunday, and holiday Mondays, 10 am - 5pm, until Labour Day.

Come and get to know our staff who are always happy to show you around and talk about the historic grain elevators and the train station.

Meet our SAGE interpreters (left to right): Kassandra, Gwen, and Katharyn

Hi everybody! I’m Gwen, the lead interpreter for the 2015 season at the St. Albert Grain Elevator park. Our schedule is busier than ever before, with educational programs running weekly, wedding photos and ceremonies on the weekends, the return of our popular Craft Thursdays, two food truck events [yes, TWO,] Dominion Day celebrations and more throughout the summer months. Of course, we’re also open to the public for tours of our 1906 and 1929 elevators, our replica train station, our gardens and more! For my part, being a political science student eight months a year has led me to conclude that it’s the people that count most of all: I love nothing better than being able to share the storied past of this place with visitors young and old, from near or far. Although I must admit the fresh cookies and lemonade are awfully good too…so drop in and see us this summer Wednesday to Sunday from 10am until 5pm each week!

Hello hello! I’m Kassandra, and I am one of the historical interpreters at the St. Albert Grain Elevators this summer. I am a university student entering my (hopefully) last year, specializing in fine arts, arts and cultural management, and public relations and communications. I have a love for history, and all things cultural, and I am very excited to be a part of the Heritage team this year! You will probably see me at the train station making cookies, crocheting as much as possible, and trying to get into costumes at every given opportunity. Although this is my first year with the team, I feel as if it is going to be a very exciting summer!

Bonjour! My name is Katharyn and I am also a historical interpreter at the St. Albert Grain Elevator Park. This is my first year, however I have been involved with volunteer work with the Arts and Heritage Foundation for many years, working at special events, assisting at the museum and helping with children's programs with my mother, so you could say my love for history is in my DNA. Although I applied for the job so that I could learn more about local and regional history “first-hand” (as I am taking many history courses in university) I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun the job is. So far my favorite part of being an interpreter is seeing the excitement that learning brings to children in our programs--who knew washing socks could make kids so happy?  Also, the Grain Elevators are pretty cool you should drop by and check them out!

For more information about the St. Albert Grain Elevator Park or to find out more about our 2015 summer and fall events go to MuseeHeritage.com