Two photos showing students at Saskatchewan residential schools have been taken down from a display at the Western Development Museum.
The pictures, part of the Winning the Prairie Gamble exhibit, were removed after Saskatoon mom Tammy Robert expressed concern. The photos’ captions did not mention the history of cultural genocide tied to residential schools, she said.
“I was ashamed and embarrassed I didn’t say anything last year,” Robert told CTV.
One photo shows a boys’ soccer team from Battleford Industrial School. The other shows girls learning to sew at St. Michael’s Residential School at Duck Lake. Robert posted to Twitter the pictures were hung beside photos of wheat fields.
Serious note: I felt deeply uncomfortable with these gild-frame pics hung beside wheatfield landscapes and Main St, Saskatchewan circa 1905. pic.twitter.com/WGFKEvinac
— Tammy Robert (@tammyrobert) February 21, 2017
The museum took down the pictures a few hours after Robert sent an email.
“I was grateful and thankful to have gotten her email. I always welcome feedback from the community. I think museums exist to serve our communities and, so, any feedback is really good,” the museum’s CEO, Joan Kanigan, said.
“As soon as she brought it to our attention, it was like, absolutely, this needs to be changed.”
