Day 8 Session (July 9, 2006)
- Posted by: chantal
- On: 07/09/2006 15:10:17
- In: Uncategorised
What's the Story in Alberta's History?
In this session, students from the Prince of Wales Elementary School in Calgary (adorned in blue "Ask me about Alberta" t-shirts) presented a readers theatre version of the wooden grain elevator and its role in Alberta's history.
Grain elevators once dotted the prairies by the thousands. These brightly hued signposts became cultural landmarks, a symbol of greatness for the productive prairies. They also served gathering places for farmers and others.
Artwork from the Prince of Wales Elementary students displayed outside of the Grain Academy tent at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (above):
However, the grain elevators are quickly vanishing from the prairie skyline and are being replaced by "concrete monstrosities" as one Calgary student noted. One of the reasons the grain elevators are disappearing is because of their wooden structure, deemed dangerous because of the ease with which they can catch fire.
With the loss of the physical structures comes the loss of history associated with them, the loss of a landmark that identifies a community, a region and a way of life. The Calgary students recognized that: "We destroy Western heritage when we destroy grain elevators."
To commemorate the history of Alberta from Treaty 7 to present day, Prince of Wales students teamed with Alberta song writer Tim Hus and wrote "And They Call Her Alberta" (Tim had just returned home from the Folklife Festival). Tim led the students in Calgary through their musical rendition along with some other songs about Alberta. The words to each song were posted on the giant screen which enabled the Washington audience to sing along.
Helmuth Schroeder, Curator-Manager with the Alberta Grain Academy and Folklife Festival participant, joined Karen on stage to talk about the disappearing grain elevator and some of the stories he has heard while in Washington. As it turns out, United States citizens of the MidWest are experiencing the same loss.
With the help of special guests in Calgary, Helmuth also led Washington through a grain game. The audience was asked to name wheat, canola (and what it stands for - Canadian oil low acid), durum wheat, and oats.
