Over 13 weeks last December, Ben Rapp, Cooper Bakker, Peter Cameron and Rowan Durnin had a taste of what it's like to be museum curator.
"Four local youth attended the mini-curators program and produced a fabulous exhibit called Texada: Copper Currents, about copper mining and the sinking of the Cheslakee on Texada," said qathet Museum and Archives (qMA) manager Ava Hansen. "The participants got to select artifacts, write labels and organize a display that shares the story they wanted to tell."
The Cheslakee steamship started to sink while leaving Van Anda on January 7, 1913.
The display at qMA highlights the youth curators' enthusiasm to learn about qathet history, and their ability to create an exciting visual and tactile picture using archival photographs, stories and artifacts. Participants also experienced what it's like to do analogue research by digging through old newspapers, reading books and archival materials. They also had a chance to build a model mine-shaft with the help of museum staff.
The curators also found an interview from a former miner named Lorrie Pirart, who spoke with the Peak in 2017. The mines could be "at first a bit scary and claustrophobic, but you get over it quick when you start doing work and then you actually start to like it," recalled Pirart at the time.
Recently, Mel Edgar, teen services coordinator at Powell River Public Library, reached out to qMA with the idea to highlight the exhibit for BC Heritage Week (third week of February).
“The library is here to create opportunities that expand perspectives," said Edgar. “We were delighted to partner with the museum to showcase a project created as part of their mini-curators’ program, celebrate some young people in our community who have been diligently learning about local history and are excited about sharing their knowledge.”
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