Fred Payton

The Museums Association of Saskatchewan, commonly referred to as MAS, develops policy and provides direction for programmes and services to benefit all Saskatchewan museums. As a member of MAS, the Prince Albert Historical Society benefits from that policy and direction.

This past year, MAS sent us a publication entitled “Museums and Sustainability: Decolonizing the Museum”.

 The basic tenet of the publication was that museums are a colonial institution. As such, if we wish to be representative of our community’s history we need to ensure that we present the community’s history not from the time of the arrival of the European settlers, but from the time when the first people began to congregate here. 

It is important that the museum be more than a place espousing the colonial history of the community.

 In other words, we must try to decolonise the museum.

I take some pride in the fact that the management and staff of the Prince Albert Historical Society has been ahead of the game when it comes to decolonizing our Historical Museum.  Our curator, Michelle Taylor, started meeting with Indigenous Knowledge Keepers in late 2016, with the first formal consultation to begin the decolonization process occurring in early 2018.

We recognize that there have been people in the Prince Albert area extending back 11,000 years, and know that our history has been shaped not only by them, but also by what was left behind by the ice age. 

Looking around the Historical Museum, it was recognized that we have done a good job of presenting Prince Albert’s history beginning in 1866, but have been less effective presenting its history during that period encompassing the fur trade. 

And quite honestly, we have not been very successful with respect to the time prior to the arrival of the Europeans and the Metis people.  Little information has been presented about how this area has been a meeting place for hundreds of years, visited by various tribes each year to trade goods, interact socially, and to exchange their culture.

Using funding provided by the Northern Lights Community Development Corporation, local Knowledge Keeper Dr. Leo Omani of the Dakota First Nation helped Ms. Taylor to identify knowledgeable, educated and respected members from the Dene, Swampy Cree, Woodland Cree, and Plains Cree communities to assist us in identifying the provenance of the artifacts and archival materials which had been donated to us, and to add to their history where possible. 

These Knowledge Keepers also helped to guide us with respect to the handling, display, and storage of artifacts considered to be sensitive and sacred.

A similar process was used to identify Metis Knowledge Keepers, with whom we are working to determine how best to identify who is Metis, their role in the fur trade, their relationship with the First Nations people, and their impact on the settlement and development of Prince Albert.

A start has occurred with respect to the development of a room which will exhibit our Indigenous history.  As well as providing assistance with our artifacts and archives, the Knowledge Keepers have made suggestions regarding how best to display their history and contributions. 

A Mural Project, involving both First Nations and Metis artists, resulted in murals representing what is important to them. 

This helps us to show the impact of the Indigenous people on the development of Prince Albert. It enhances the knowledge of our visitors regarding the First Nations and Metis peoples of the region, but also strengthens the pride of our Indigenous citizens by displaying their adaptability and ability to change their lifestyles based upon how cultures have changed over time.

In addition to the benefits accruing to the Historical Society, our work with the Knowledge Keepers has given us an opportunity to work with the City of Prince Albert and the Downtown Business Improvement District to promote the Indigenous history of our area, providing a cornerstone for developing and improving relationships amongst the City, our Downtown businesses, the First Nations people, and the Metis people.

 It has even resulted in the Prince Albert Historical Society earning an award from the Museums Association of Saskatchewan for the community Mural Project, as well as that same project being named one of twenty-five finalists in the Governor General’s national history competition.

Fred Payton, Prince Albert Historical Society

In May, 1932, the Prince Albert Historical Society met in the City Council chambers (now the Prince Albert Arts Centre).  The major focus of the meeting centred around their future plans for the establishment of a museum in the recently re-built Mission schoolhouse at Bryant Park (now Kinsmen Park).  A committee of five persons, chaired by Fire Chief J.N. Smith, was directed to take the necessary action to implement this idea.

On December 5th of that year, the City Council approved a request from the Historical Society to donate to the Society the old blockhouse which was situated behind the home of Dr. C.M. Finlayson, who resided at 103 – 12th Street West, a location which now encompasses the Margot Fournier Centre.  The City had obtained clear title to the blockhouse, and was more than willing for the Society to take it off its hands and to move it to the “historical corner of Bryant Park” to save this relic of the past.

The Mission schoolhouse referred to was built by the Reverend James Nisbet, who had settled in the area in 1866.  Not only a missionary wishing to bring Christianity to the First Nations people, Nisbet was also a trained and skillful carpenter.  He erected the log schoolhouse in 1872 to serve as a combined school and church, providing the basics of education and agriculture as well as religious instruction.

The blockhouse was originally constructed by Archie Ballantyne as a stable for William Maclise, Prince Albert’s first lawyer, who had arrived here in 1881.  During the 1885 conflict, concerns were expressed that Prince Albert might be attacked, and the stable was converted to a blockhouse, housing military equipment and providing a place of defence.  Gun slits were cut into the walls, and what was previously a stable became a part of the fortification around the Presbyterian church and its manse.

The Society’s plans to utilise the two buildings as a museum came to fruition in the summer of 1933 and the “historic corner” of Bryant Park became a tourist attraction for the City.  However, space was limited, and the lack of amenities, such as heat and water, resulted in it being a warm weather facility only.

These two buildings, the oldest surviving buildings within Prince Albert city limits, stood for nearly 75 years on that corner of the park.  When more appropriate facilities became available to the Historical Society, the basement of the Provincial Court House in 1955, and the current location in the City’s former Fire Hall, the Mission schoolhouse (The Nisbet church) and the blockhouse were utilised as storage for some of the Society’s larger and more cumbersome artifacts.

But time, and the northern Prairie weather, took its toll on the buildings.  The shingles on the roofs started to rot and disappear, allowing squirrels and other creatures access to the buildings, and the lower logs began to rot.  It became apparent to the Society and to the City that efforts were going to have to be initiated in order to save them, or the buildings would be lost.

It was finally decided that the buildings should be taken apart, piece by piece, numbered and stored, until they could be restored as nearly as possible to their original construction.  As their original sites are no longer available, it was determined to re-locate them to the river bank, near the Historical Museum.  This not only places them close to their original locations, but places them on a site near where the Nisbet party originally landed.  Once they are located on the river bank, it will allow for easier programming and displays that reflect their separate functions. 

With new roofs and logs replacing those which had rotted from age, and set on new concrete flooring, these two buildings which were locally dove-tailed and square hewn, will reflect the look of Prince Albert in its earliest days.

To accomplish this task, the Historical Society needs to raise $200,000.  If you, your business, or your organisation is interested in helping us to rebuild a piece of our history on the river bank, where Prince Albert began, please check out our website (https://historypa.com/) or contact us at 306-764-2992.

Museum Musings is a biweekly column from Historical Society member Fred Payton