A classic St. Albert children’s landmark is making an encore appearance as part of a new exhibit at the city’s museum.
The Raising St. Albert: Early Childhood exhibit opens Aug.14 at the Musée Héritage Museum. The free exhibit explores the highs and lows of early childhood in the St. Albert region from pre-settlement times to today.
Curator Martin Bierens said he organized this exhibit to tap into the museum’s vast collection of childhood artifacts and tales.
“You see the joy and mischief of kids throughout history,” he said, and the care and reverence parents showed for them.
Joy and tears
That reverence is on full display at the front of the exhibit, which features First Nations and Métis cradleboards and moss bags. Indigenous parents have long used these items to swaddle and carry babies, with the absorbent mosses in the moss bags acting as natural diapers, Bierens said. These particular bags and boards feature intricate beadwork, brilliant colours, and (in one case) a built-in sunroof, reflecting the respect and honour children hold in Indigenous culture.
“Midwives were an essential part of community health care in St. Albert,” Bierens said, as the community had neither doctors nor nurses for much of its early decades.
First Nations and Métis midwives such as Exerine and Louisa Belcourt helped bring countless children into the world in St. Albert prior to the 1950s, Bierens said. The exhibit juxtaposes a fuzzy children’s rabbit fur coat made by Exerine next to a pair of shiny metal obstetrical forceps used by Dr. W.D. Cuts to illustrate the community’s shift to doctor-centred medicine. Midwifery is making a comeback today in some Indigenous communities as a way to address the spiritual elements of birth, Bierens noted.
Childhood is also about play. Guests at the exhibit can play hopscotch and check out toys from throughout the last century, including a clockwork bear with wind-up walk and head-wagging action.
“This toy bear was built just after the Second World War,” Bierens said, and was likely made in Germany or Japan.
The exhibit also delves into the dark side of childhood. Infant mortality was common in St. Albert before the 1900s, with one in seven kids dying before their first birthday. Chief Solomon Callihoo of the Michel First Nation lost seven of his 12 children to tuberculosis, while Christine Harnois (sister of Father Albert Lacombe) lost all five of hers to diphtheria in one week.
“In St. Albert, our legacy of residential schools can’t be ignored,” Bierens said.
The exhibit features a handbell and a brick from the Youville residential school that once stood on Mission Hill. Hundreds of Indigenous youth were forcibly taken from their homes and placed in schools like it as part of a nationwide attempt to exterminate their language and beliefs. At least 47 students died there, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation reports.
Just next to the brick and bell is a representation of children today: the St. Albert Public Library apple tree, which was on display at the museum last month as part of the Signs of the Times exhibit. Bierens said staff decided to keep the tree around for this new exhibit as many kids (and their parents) had fond childhood memories of it.
Raising St. Albert runs from Aug. 14 to Nov. 15. Bierens will host a guided tour of the exhibit on Aug. 16. Visit artsandheritage.ca for details.
