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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Brother Henri Sareault: Traveler, Storyteller
Born into a family of six children in 1905 in Nashua, New Hampshire, Brother Henri Sareault immigrated to Quebec and studied at Sacred Heart Juniorate in Ottawa, Ontario in 1921. He entered the Noviciate at Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, in 1922 and pronounced his vows at Fort Chipewyan, Alberta on February 17, 1929. Br. Sareault spent over 40 years engaged in such diverse activities as captaining a boat, travelling the north in a plane, hunting, fishing, and driving dog teams. As captain and pilot of the Sant'Anna, the oblates mission freighter, and travelling companion on Bishop Breynat's airplane, Br. Sareault was uniquely positioned to experience and engage communities from all over the Northwest Territories. His time maintaining as well as fishing and hunting for many missions in the North contributed to the familiarity with which he came to know the people of the North.
Gifted with a remarkable memory for detail and a talent for storytelling, Br. Sareault was able to bring his broad experiences of the North to bear on the museum project in which he would find himself involved from 1965 to the end of his life in 1984. His knowledge of the people not only helped him to collect many of the precious items now in the Oblate collection at Fort Smith, but served to illuminate the collection in a uniquely personal and vital manner.
Brother Sareault's contributions to the North did not go unacknowledged. Not only did both the local communities and his fellow Oblates have a great affection and sincere appreciation for him, but also he was one of five people publicly recognised in 1979 with the Commissioner's Award for Public Service. The award reads as follows: "in recognition of his untiring efforts over a period of many years to collect and preserve for posterity valuable articles and historical items of particular interest to the people of the Northwest Territories." Brother Henri Sareault's immense gifts nurtured both the life and memory of the communities in which he served.
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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
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