The Souris Valley Museum used its Family Day on Saturday to launch a new exhibit celebrating sports in Estevan and elsewhere.
The History of Sports has a variety of memorabilia on display, with an emphasis on local sports. It includes items from the Estevan Comprehensive School Elecs, the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins and some Indigenous sports.
There is also some equipment that would have been used by the athletes, such as an old wooden baseball bat and an old curling broom. Bowling pins are also on display.
“It’s really showcasing the different history of games and sports in Estevan and just to bring out more of our collections out into the museum space,” said curator-director Mark Veneziano.
Also in the display are musical instruments from a marching band, since those bands performed at sporting events in Estevan.
Most of the display is part of the museum’s permanent collection, but some items, such as the Bruins jersey, are on loan from the club. The band instruments are from a private person.
Veneziano is particularly interested in the Indigenous aspect of the display. They have skis and snowshoes on display, as well as lacrosse, which was invented by Indigenous people.
And it’s timely, too, with National Indigenous People’s Day coming up on June 21.
Another unique part of the display is the Estevan Board Game, which was based on Monopoly and created as a fundraiser for the construction of St. Joseph’s Hospital in the 1990s.
Veneziano said he knew about the game before the exhibit, because it’s been in their collection for some time.
“It features different properties and companies from the past,” said Veneziano.
Some of those businesses on the board are still around, and rate among the longest-standing businesses in the city. Others, however, are not. Among those to have since shut down is the Estevan Brick Plant, which occupies the space that would be equivalent to Boardwalk. Estevan City Hall is free parking on the board.
“It’s something different and it’s something cool that we have in our collection, so we thought it would be good to have it out here,” said Veneziano.
The museum decided to have a sports-themed exhibit because it was suggested by one of their summer students. Arianna Bourassa, who is the curatorial assistant, was tasked with creating a new display at the museum.
“We gave our students the freedom to pick what they would like to put on display, and Arianna found quite a bit of stuff about local sports, so she really took the on this project and made the display herself and did all of the research for each of the panels at the museum on what she thought would be interesting for the community and interesting for her to research.
She is also currently working on the new display, which will be in place in August.
