The Western Development Museum (WDM) has arranged Remembrance Day activities throughout the month of November ‘In Remembrance.’
“It’s nice to showcase a few of the other things that we have in the general WDM collection that might not be located here in Moose Jaw and what a great way to tie it into a theme that helps to recognize Remembrance Day,” Karla Rasmussen Education Programs Coordinator at the WDM said.
WDM will be showing wartime movies from the National Film Board and there will be a Wartime Rationing ‘Seek and Find’ activity curing the whole month of November.
The National Film Board films can be viewed in the little theatre at the WDM. The films are for all ages; some are a little bit more serious than others – some are quite short and some are a little bit longer. These movies speak to Canadians and many Saskatchewan people about the First and Second World War. One of the films Wartime Housing is about the housing problems that happened right after the Second World War when soldiers came home from the war. Another film Forgotten Warriors is about indigenous soldiers who were involved in the Second World War and later did not receive their deserving treatment even after fighting for their country. With these films, the museum wants to show the hardship and the difficult times Canadians went through during the wars.
“I just want to bring some awareness to that injustice and inequality,” said Rasmussen.
She mentions that during the First and Second World Wars, people did not have enough rations, from food to rubber, silk, metal and many others. They had to be creative in making different kinds of food, like baking a cake with limited ingredients. She also said that during war times people did not have sugar, so they used molasses to improve the taste.
“Molasses was used instead of sugar.”
She wants people to explore and understand what it would take to make a cake during wartime.
Rasmussen said the museum will be hosting “The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) will be held on Saturday, November 19th at 11:00 a.m., followed by the Saskatchewan’s Wartime Contributions presentation at 2:00 p.m.
BCATP presentation will be an aircraft walkthrough that is physically present in the museum. Attendees will get to know how these vintage aircraft are being restored. Some of these aircraft are Saskatchewan’s wartime contributions; some are scuttled by the military and come in very poor conditions and are later restored to their best conditions. These restorations are done by a group of volunteers known as “The Vintage Aircraft Restorers.”
In Saskatchewan, there are several training schools in different locations around the province. There were at least 14 locations and 22 schools who were specialized in general training for pilots during the Second World War. “We have a large number of planes in our collection that are from the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP).”
Saskatchewan’s Wartime Contributions is an interactive presentation in which attendees are asked to bring regular items like pots, pans, bits of scrap metal and other similar items. In the presentation, people will get to know about how regular mundane household items were recycled and made into aircraft, tanks and other war machinery. By melting rubber, they could make aircraft and military car wheels. They will also discuss how they made parachutes with silk.
Within the presentation, the contribution of women within Canadian society will also be reviewed. These women worked in factories and on farms to grow crops and supply food rations for soldiers who were overseas and fighting in the war. Moose Jaw WDM’s discovery box will also be presented for attendees to have an interactive experience.
For more information, contact WDM Moose Jaw at 50 Diefenbaker Drive or by phone at 306-693-5989.
