THE RURAL HISTORY & CULTURE ASSOCIATION
OF SASKATCHEWAN

In 2005 Saskatchewan celebrated its provincial Centennial and as part of the festivities the Celebrate Canada Committee for Saskatchewan staged the Celebrate Canada Centennial Jam.  The Jam was a one-day outdoor festival held n July 1, 2005, in Wascana Centre in Regina that attracted over 50,000 people.  As Project Manager for the Celebrate Canada Committee, Mike Fedyk was able to initiate unique Heritage Exhibits that were staged in the flower gardens in front of the Saskatchewan Legislature. There were nine Heritage Exhibits, each consisting of an actor portraying a Saskatchewan historical figure performing a speech on a small stage.  Each stage featured a backdrop of historical pictures from the era when the speech originally took place.  Among the figures portrayed were John Diefenbaker, Tommy Douglas, Big Bear, Gabriel Dumont and Violet McNaughton.  Until recently pictures of these unique presentations of Saskatchewan history were featured on the Celebrate Canada Committee for Saskatchewan website but the Committee is in the process of being phased out by the federal government and their website has been taken off the internet.

The Rural History and Culture Association has posted the pictures, formally on the Celebrate Canada site on its Flickr website in order to make sure that the pictures and information about the Heritage Exhibits are still available to the public.  The picture to the right is of the Heritage Exhibit featuring Regina actress Karin Von Staden portraying Saskatchewan pioneer and women’s advocate Georgina Binnie Clark.

The much anticipated release of Fort Walsh to Wood Mountain: The North-West Mounted Police Trail will take place in July 2010.  The book is the legacy aspect of the very successful Celebrate the NWMP Trail festivals that took place during the summer of 2009 in five south western Saskatchewan communities and Fort Walsh National Historic Site.  The book features 14 articles contributed by Garrett Wilson, Ken Mitchell, Thelma Poirier, Mike Fedyk and a number of other Canadian writers.  Richly illustrated with over 20 black and white historical photographs, the book also includes 16 colour photographs from renowned photographer Everett Baker, who was also the person most responsible placing historic markers on the Trail in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The book is expected to retail for $14.50 and will be available at a number of bookstores as well as through the Saskatchewan History and Folklore Society (SHFS).  All profits from the sale of the book will go to the SHFS’s Friends of the NWMP Trail program, which maintains the NWMP Trail markers.  A complete list of outlets where Fort Walsh to Wood Mountain will be available and how to order a copy from the SHFS will be announced in mid-June along with the scheduled release date.

Everyone’s favourite Saskatchewan history-themed musician, Don Modderman has just launched an exciting new website to promote his many musical projects including, Ragtime Don and the Word Junkie, Mystic Flute and Crofters.  You can see what Don and company are up to (and grass definitely does not grow under Don’s feet) and you can order his awesome CDs right off the site, including his latest, Steamboats on the Saskatchewan. The site looks and sounds great, check it out!