LA FERME, Quebec – The award-winning Spirit Lake Internment Interpretative Center, now in its seventh successful year, has expanded its ever-popular educational school program at the center. The guided school tours of the internment museum offered for the elementary, high school and CEGEP level throughout the Abitibi area and the province are already booked for the months of April, May and June.
The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to accommodate schools and the general public. Many thousands more will be visiting the center this year.
School buses that arrive at the museum, are divided in two groups of 15-20 students in the museum. As one group with their teacher and museum-guide tours the exhibit area upstairs, the second group of 15-20 students enjoys lunch in the downstairs room and views two documentaries on the internment, “Ukrainians in Quebec 1891-1945“ in French or English, or “Freedom Had a Price.” During warm weather, students tour the original Spirit Lake internment grounds around the center. Busloads of students will also be arriving from Montreal, Ottawa, Gatineau, Laval and other areas over the next months.
The center reaches out by doing presentations at various schools; in turn, the teachers book visits for students to see the actual internment museum with its unique artifact collection, photos from the internment period and other related historical items.
Because the center has wheelchair accessibility, teachers with special needs students are welcomed and able to book tours.
Last year, Spirit Lake center applied for and was approved to join a newly established special Quebec Government cultural- educational school program, in which the provincial government reimburses schools 50 percent of their expenses for bus tours visiting a recommended Quebec museum. As a result, Sprit Lake Center’s unique focus on the internment story has increased its school visits even more. “The museum needs more days to accommodate the high demand,” stated James Slobodian program co-coordinator, “our efforts and hard work to make this the leading internment museum in Canada is bearing results.”
Recently, Mr. Slobodian was interviewed by Radio-Canada, the French national television station. The nine-minute television program about Spirit Lake internment aired across Canada, further reaching out to the large Francophone community in all provinces. The television program included many original internment photos discovered in the 1970s by Yurij Luhovy, which he called the Palmer Collection after the name of the photographer-soldier. This remarkable photo collection was later donated by Yurij and Zorianna Luhovy to the National Archives of Canada for public use. The Spirit Lake internment photos were first used in the making of Mr. Luhovy’s documentary film, “Freedom Had a Price.”
The official 2017 Quebec tourist booklet has included full page coverage of Spirit Lake Center/museum as one of the recommended museums to visit. The booklets are distributed across Canada, informing visitors beyond Quebec.
The center is continuing its successful bike rental program this spring and summer. Called “Heritage on a Bike,” it includes a free rental, a visit to the museum and a bike tour around Spirit Lake and its expansive internment grounds.
Spirit Lake Center is the largest internment museum in Canada. It tells the story of the unjust internment at Spirit Lake (1915-1917), Canada’s first national internment operations 1914-1920 and the early history of Ukrainian immigration to Quebec. Spirit Lake was the second largest of 24 internment sites with the majority of the 1,200 internees being Ukrainian. Many were taken from the Montreal area.
Spirit Lake Center launched its first nation-wide fund-raising campaign marking the 100th anniversary of Spirit Lake internment to help ensure the center’s ongoing programs, especially its educational programs. The center, which is non-profit, provides income tax receipts. To help support the center’s internment awareness programs, visit www.campspiritlake.ca.