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Hometown Hero: Curating Quesnel's history

Elizabeth Hunter is Quesnel's museum and heritage manager
elizabeth-hunter
Elizabeth Hunter stands in front of one of her favourite pieces in the museum.

Quesnel's museum and heritage manager Elizabeth Hunter enjoys collecting, displaying and sharing the city's and region's history. 

She got into working at museums after earning a master's degree in museum studies in Toronto.

"Coming up through high school I was interested in history and working in a museum and a did of lot of things like pottery and stained glass and that kind of thing," she said. "I sort of made the decision then to do a formal BA degree rather than going to art school because I really enjoy them as hobbies but I didn't want to have the pressure of trying to make a living by doing pottery."

After graduating, she worked as an interpreter and guide for the Toronto Historic Board. She went on to work at historic sites and county museums and archives. After a number of years bouncing around to new museums, she made her way to Quesnel in 2007.

"I like community museums in communities about this size where you can be actively involved and have an impact on the community through what you do," she said, adding she also enjoys that she gets to do more than administrative work in Quesnel and can lead education programs, develop exhibits and switch things up.

Her education linked very well to the history of Quesnel, she took courses specializing in Chinese and Canadian history as well as learning about Indigenous art for her master's degree.

"Here, there's the importance of the Chinese history for our community and I had the opportunity to work with some of the local bands on oral history projects and that kind of stuff, so it's been a good fit," she said.

She also appreciates the stability of the Quesnel Museum, unlike some community museums, they don't struggle for funding and have to raise the funds to operate the facility as it is funded by the City of Quesnel.

Over the time she's been in Quesnel, Hunter has worked on improving the museum's building by working with the city on what things need to be upgraded and renovated. In her first year with the museum a feasibility study was done on building a new facility but it was never carried out.

Hunter also worked to have all of the archived newspapers the museum owns digitized, which gives everyone access to articles from the city's past.

"It's something that makes the local history really accessible locally, but also all around the world," she said. She's planning to expand the museum's digital collection to include more photographs and some of the items in the museum.

She's also worked to ensure the diverse history of the city and the region are reflected in the museum with pieces including a turban donated by Baltej Dhillon, the first Mountie in Canada to wear a turban with his uniform. She also worked to share the history of Chinese-Canadians and Indo-Canadians who came to Quesnel.

"Everybody in the community can see themselves reflected and prior to doing that, you wouldn't have known that there was an important Indo-Canadian community here by touring the museum," she said. "A lot of the museums were created coming out of the end of the 100th anniversary, the centennial for the Canadian confederation." She said because of that many museums tended to focus on pioneers and the early days of colonization.

"The museum commission that was in charge before I came had really looked at that and started this project to do a better job of including the First Nations and Chinese and then we added that Indo-Canadian component."

One of Hunter's favourite artifacts in the museum is a quilt that won first prize in the province for the Women's Institute Centennial Quilt Competition. She comes from a long line of quilters and appreciates the piece.

"I tend to like things that show modification, things that have been repaired and reused and repurposed," Hunter explained. One item she likes that shows that is a tea box that was turned into a caddy for tools at Cottonwood.

"You can date it because the brand of tea in the store was around for a very limited time in the 1860s," she said. "But then it was used and came into the collection in the 1950s. So it was used at Cottonwood for all that time."

Community museums preserve local history and helps people connect to their community by better understanding what came before, Hunter said. She also doesn't believe museums need to have things like QR codes for youth to be able to learn, interact and enjoy them.

"Let them come in and use a wooden top," she said with a laugh. "They'll spend hours, they like the hands on, doing the physical stuff as well. So it provides a bit of a balance from just learning through screens and that kind of stuff."

She said it's a fun job. She likes when people drop artifacts off at the museum and tell their stories and she enjoys working with students on the educational aspects of the museum.

In her time with the museum, Hunter has helped de-clutter some areas and takes down or rotates out artifacts that may not be relevant or have duplicate artifacts already shown in the museum so people can see all sorts of unique and different items.

"By thinning it, you're actually making people spend more time because it's not overwhelming. You can see and absorb and find things that you're interested in and changing the lighting so that things are spotlighted so it makes it easier for people to visit and retain something about what they're seeing," she said. 

Hunter appreciates the community of Quesnel, the different people and groups who organize events, the arts organizations and the ability to have a real community.



Austin Kelly

About the Author: Austin Kelly

Born and raised in Surrey, I'm excited to have the opportunity to start my journalism career in Quesnel.
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