Spirit Lake Media, La Ferme, Quebec.
The award-winning Spirit Lake Internment Interpretative Center marks its sixth successful year since officially opening. During the high peak tourist season from June to September, The Centre extended its hours this year from 9am to 10pm every day, providing guided tours in French, English or Ukrainian. Three university students were hired full-time on a summer student government program to help operate the museum. The three students were recently interviewed about the internment museum and their work at the Centre on Radio-Canada, aired throughout Quebec and parts of Ontario.
Spirit Lake Centre is included as one of the recommended museums to see in two official 2016 Quebec tourist booklets. The booklets are distributed throughout Canada, U.S. and parts of Europe, drawing visitors from far and wide. Group tours are received from many parts of Quebec.
The Centre is the largest internment museum in Canada, open all year, which tells the story of the unjust internment at Spirit Lake (1915-1917) , Canada’s first national internment operations 1914-20 and the early history of Ukrainian immigration to Quebec. This year, the Centre also highlights the 125th anniversary of Ukrainian settlement in Canada and the contributions Ukrainians made to the development of the near-by City of Amos, Val d’Or, Rouyn Noranda and other surrounding towns in the Abitibi region of Quebec. Rich in history, not far from Spirit Lake, Canada’s first Ukrainian Studite Monastery was established at Lac Castagnier, formerly called Sheptytsky Colony. The last known person to be baptized at Sheptytsky Colony is Marcel (Vasyl) Lesyk, former mayor of Amos and honorary chairperson of Spirit Lake fund raising campaign. The guides at Spirit Lake Centre provide information about the many surrounding areas settled by Ukrainians. This history is also depicted in Luhovy’s documentary “Ukrainians in Quebec 1891-1945”.
Spirit Lake was the second largest of twenty-four internment sites with the majority of the 1,200 internment being Ukrainian. Many were taken from the Montreal area.
Uniquely located on the original internment grounds one hundred years ago , the work of the Centre has recently inspired the writing of a third French-language book titled “Les amants maudits de Spirit Lake” (The Tragic Lovers of Spirit Lake), dealing with internment, thereby making the internment story available to over nine million French speakers across Canada. The author born near Spirit Lake, Claire Bergeron, has been invited by the Ukrainian National Federation Montreal branch “Literary Circle” to be present for a book signing at the UNF’s kiosk during the Montreal Ukrainian Festival in September.
Spirit Lake Centre continues to offer a range of activities and programs throughout the year effectively expanding broad public awareness of the internment story. This fall, The Centre will be launching its first nation-wide fund-raising campaign, to help ensure the Center’s on-going programs, including educational-outreach school visits, and workshops continue.
“We are very proud of Spirit Lake Centre’s sixth successful year, says James Slobodian chair, and hope the ongoing, hard work of The Centre to tell the internment story, with its many dedicated volunteers, will be supported during our first fundraising campaign. Every year, thousands more visitors from many places learn about internment for the first time as they pass through the museum.”
For more information see www.campspriritlake.ca or facebook.com/campspiritlake.
Share on Social Media
