The Home of the Muse: Oblates and the Northern Life Museum
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The Home of the Muse: Oblates and the Northern Life Museum
Benjamin Lyle Berger
Research Associate, Provincial Museum of Alberta
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The Oblate Consolidated Collection
Beginning in the summer of 1996, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Provincial Museum of Alberta Folklife Department began a partnership that would establish a research and documentation project aimed at exploring the self-understanding of the Oblates in light of history, vocation, and charsim. At the core of this project is an artifact collection consisting of key cultural materials central to the experience of the Oblates in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Under the direction of Curator David Goa and facilitated in large measure by Fr. Andy Boyer, Director of Community and Planning, Grandin Province, this endeavor now consists of a collection of nearly 2400 Oblate-owned artifacts under the curatorship of the Provincial Museum, extensive photographic and audio documentation, and other research materials.
The artifacts that comprise the material record of the Oblate Missionary experience consist of a wide range of objects assembled from a number of different sources in Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Key among these sources is the Vital Grandin Centre, the Girouxville Village Museum, and the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith. From snowshoes and copper pots to chalices and monstrances, these artifacts attest to the diversity and depth of the Oblate encounter and commitment to Northern and Western Canada and to all whom make these regions of Canada their home.
These wood carvings, probably made by Fr. Adam, were used as printing block.
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This project has been supported in part by the Canada-Alberta Agreement on French-language Services; the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the Governments of Canada or Alberta.
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Institut pour le Patrimoine, Campus Saint-Jean, University of Alberta
All Rights Reserved