Kelowna Museum turns 50
While people across Canada are celebrating 150 years of confederation, Kelowna Museums is celebrating its own milestone. This year, the museum is 50 years old. “Kelowna’s very first purpose-built museum, now called the Okanagan Heritage Museum, opened 50 years ago as Kelowna’s major centennial project,” said Linda Digby, executive director of the Kelowna Museums Society. “Some of the old settlers were starting to pass away, and there was a sense that we’re losing history.”
In its 50th year, Kelowna Museums is reimagining they way it looks at history, including the role of marginalized groups such as Indigenous people, Chinese Canadians and women, said Digby.
“Canada as we know it is 150 years old, and yet the Indigenous communities have been here for thousands of years,” said Digby. “We embrace this as an opportunity to work with them to tell a different story. We’re telling it differently, and most importantly, we’re providing a place where our partners in the Indigenous community can bring their voices directly into these spaces and tell it the way they see it.”
Kelowna Museums Society has been changing the entire permanent gallery to reflect the role of Indigenous people in the history of Kelowna.
“I am very delighted to be witness to a cultural flourishing that is happening in the Okanagan Nation Alliance and I think a lot of Indigenous communities across B.C., as they reclaim their language and their heritage,” said Digby. “For museums to be part of it is a tremendous privilege.”
Ursula Surtees, the first curator of the Kelowna Centennial Museum, has been part of the museum from the beginning.
“I knew museums had a role to play,” she said at the 50th anniversary celebration.
Building the museum had its challenges, but Surtees was determined to make it the best it could be.
“We got quality things, we got good exhibits, we bullied Ottawa and we bullied big museums that had collections they were reluctant to send to little old Kelowna, but we soldiered on,” said Surtees. “I wasn’t going to quit until I was able to do what museums are supposed to do, and that’s preserve.”
The museum has progressed wonderfully over the years, she said.
“You have to really believe in what you’re doing and believe it’s good for the city and that the city will grow into it as well, and that’s what happened.”
In celebration of the 50th anniversary, Kelowna Museums Society held an event on Saturday, featuring traditional language performances, museum tours and videos.