Village News

When I see a Winnipeg transit bus with its electronic sign flashing the phrase “practice social distancing” pass me, I catch myself thinking wistfully how much I will enjoy the time when phrases like “social distancing” are dropped by the wayside because they are no longer necessary. I think with nostalgia of all the times I have gathered with large groups of people in the past in meaningful settings like church services, weddings, funerals, or hanging out with friends on a weekend. I long for those times to return.

However, I catch myself in those moments too and remind myself that life in this “new normal” (also a phrase I won’t be sad to see drift from our collective vocabulary) goes on and that I have a role in it. I have watched with interest, and been inspired by, how people have reached out to one another in these unique times. A common thread that I’ve seen woven through some of these tremendously creative responses has been that people simply use what they have, be it resources, talents, or other gifts, to make a difference: a cartoonist and children’s author that I follow on Instagram (@LizClimo) offered free colouring pages to her followers; someone dressed up in an Easter bunny costume and paraded down my neighbourhood’s streets from the open back of a hatch-back car, tooting the horn the whole way, on Easter Sunday morning.

Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) closed to the public on March 19 due to COVID-19. It was a sad day and it has continued to be a curious and challenging time as we navigate this situation as a museum. But as the Senior Curator, I started to wonder what I have that I can offer during our closure to help ease the burden of this difficult time, to raise spirits, to provide something to think about beyond the daily litany of COVID-19 news. I have a unique and privileged job in caring for the museum’s collection of 16,500+ artefacts. And behind each of our artefacts are stories that tell us something about who we are as people, where we’ve come from, what we aspired to in the past, how we dealt with difficulties, and what we hoped and dreamed about. I think I have the best job around because my job is, essentially, to tell these stories and to shape them into something that is educational, beneficial, interesting, relevant, and captivating for people today.

With this in mind, I decided that MHV should join the #museumathome movement that was started by museums around the world to bring their collections and their work to the public during a time when the public is unable to come to them. Throughout the month of April, MHV’s social media channels (see below for more details) have focused on highlighting stories from our collections of artefacts and heritage buildings, allowing the public a sneak peek into the role of a curator in shaping these stories and caring for the collection, and hopefully offering our followers content that inspires curiosity, widens the museum’s community of supporters, and promotes wellbeing in our community. Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube throughout the coming months, as we strive to bring the museum to you! In this small way, I hope MHV too can also inspire others to use what they have, to make a difference to those around them.