215 Indigenous Children

215 Indigenous Children

Posted on by Rebecca Watson
Posted on: Monday May 31, 2021
A word graphic on an orange background reading,

The Manitoba Museum joins with all of Canada in extending our heartfelt condolences to the families and the communities who have been devastated by the discovery of the remains of 215 Indigenous children who died at Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia. In doing this, we recognize both the profound loss that these children’s deaths represent and the story of erasure that this discovery exposes. We acknowledge and remember the 215 children who were loved, cared for, and missed by their loved ones – 215 children who are not forgotten, although their stories were silenced for so long.

The Manitoba Museum is committed to educating visitors about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of these children and where possible, who they were, while calling upon all levels of government to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC’s) Calls to Action, particularly Calls 71 through 76 (Missing Children and Burial Information).

We also recognize that the story of the discovery of these children’s remains highlights the ongoing story of Indigenous child welfare in Canada. In keeping with this, we call upon all levels of government to respond promptly and wholeheartedly to the spirit and intent of the TRC’s Calls to Action, and especially to Calls 1-5 on Child Welfare.

#EveryChildMatters
#215Children

Travelling Plants of the Prairies 

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson

Plants and fungi were challenging organisms to include in our new Prairies Gallery because most of our 50,000+ Museum specimens are preserved in a flattened, dehydrated condition. Not very attractive! Further, because these organisms don’t move the way animals do, people don’t seem to find them interesting. But are they really the passive, immobile creatures that we think they are? Our new exhibit case called Travelling Plants and Flying Fungi, attempts to dispel this notion. 

The fact of the matter is, plants and fungi need to be able to move, otherwise they would never have colonized land! However, it is not the adults that do the actual moving; it is their gametes (pollen) and offspring (seeds). Before a plant can make seeds, it has to have its eggs fertilized by pollen grains from another plant. Since a plant can’t just get up and walk to another plant to give it some pollen, they have to use wind or animals, called pollinators, as couriers. To depict this process, the new Museum case includes intricate 3-D models of a wind-pollinated grass and four animal-pollinated flowers, as well as their pollinators, instead of flattened plants. 

The plant models were created by the Museum’s talented Diorama & Collections Technician. Two of the models are real plants that were “mummified”, and then painted to look alive. The other three are entirely artificial. To make them, a plant was collected, and then molds made of the parts. These molds were used to create fake leaves, stems, flowers and fruits, which were then assembled together and painted. 

 

A dried and flattened plant specimen with root ball, stems, green leaves, and yellow flowers.

Most Museum specimens are dried and flattened, like this Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) plant. 

A test version of a Museum display featuring plants, seeds, and fungi of the prairies place in front of and alongside printed text pages to provide a mock-up of the final exhibit.

Before the final graphics were chosen, the layout of the case needed to be tested. 

A model plant showing a long stalk with green leaves and clusters of small, yellow flowera at the top growing out of a small patch of earth. Next to it is a version of the same plant at the end of the growing season – brown and dried.

The Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) model has two pollinators on it: a beetle and a butterfly. 

Once a plant is pollinated, seeds, protected inside fruits, develop. Seeds also need to disperse, and, once again, wind and animals are the couriers. To illustrate the different methods of dispersal, various seeds and fruits from the Museum’s collection were selected for display. 

Close-up view into one portion of the exhibit case, displaying six specimen dishes containing fruits and seeds alongside descriptive text.

Inset cases display various kinds of fruits and seeds. These species have hooked burs that catch onto animal fur. 

Some plants, fungi and lichens do not produce multi-celled seeds; they produce tiny, single-celled structures called spores. Since they are so small, they typically disperse very well in the wind. Specimens of several common prairie spore-producers, including fungi and club-moss, are displayed in between the plant models. 

Two open boxes, each containing a slightly yellowed puffball fungi. The mushroom in the bottom box is cracked open.

Puffball fungi (Calvatia spp.) were collected, and quickly dehydrated, for this new display case. 

Manitoba prairies have many fascinating plants, fungi and lichens in them. How they survive and reproduce is now one of the stories we tell in the Museum. My only regret is that we couldn’t include more species in the gallery. Hopefully, this new case will inspire our visitors to spend more time paying attention to, and appreciating, the plants in our wild prairies. 

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki-Robson