Indigenous knowledge program expands at Royal Sask. Museum

Indigenous programming at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum is expanding to include cultural workshops on topics such as storytelling, plant use and traditional art.

They will be additions to the museum’s existing Traditional Knowledge Keepers Program after the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation announced a $10,000 gift to the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum.

“It’s just a continuation and passing on of that cultural knowledge,” said Theresa Walter, First Nations program specialist.

“People are learning about beading or understanding that relationship to the past, that this is how we would have decorated our clothes thousands of years ago … and how we still do today.”

The programs will be offered in the fall and winter, made available to school groups and the public.

It’s expected to reach more than 2,500 students over the next year, according to a news release from the STF.

“As teachers, we know learning and recognizing the past is necessary to build understanding of one another,” said STF president Patrick Maze in a news release.

“We believe programs such as this, reaching a wide range of audiences and demographics, can play an important role in the truth and reconciliation process.”

Canada’s history hasn’t been a great story from a First Nations perspective, Walter said, calling it a one-sided narrative told by the dominant society.

But that is starting to change, partly through treaty education in schools, partly through museum programs like the one being announced.

“It’s not just museums or archaeologists or anthropologists or palaeontologists telling the story about their thoughts on how the people lived,” Walter said.

“It’s now us telling our stories today of how we lived long ago and how we continue to live today and thrive today in Saskatchewan or Canada.”