THUNDER BAY - Historical societies throughout the region are facing a number of challenges, from a lack of funding to dwindling membership numbers, but organizers of a heritage symposium in Thunder Bay hope to change that trend.
On Saturday, the Ontario Historical Society hosted a heritage symposium at the Thunder Bay Museum to provide historical societies, historians, and members of the community an opportunity to discuss some of the successes and some of the challenges facing historical and heritage societies in the region.
According to Michel Beaulieu, a professor in the history department at Lakehead University and vice president of the Ontario Historical Society, said the biggest challenges facing regional historical societies are resources.
“History and heritage organizations by and large are under-resourced when compared to other organizations,” he said. “The organizations represented here today are by and large non-profits. Their funding comes from government, federal, provincial, and municipal grants.”
“They also rely on membership,” Beaulieu continued. “They are all facing declining memberships, which is a bit of an irony, because most members tend to be generally over the age of 50 and with an aging population, you would assume this would be a boon for them.”
There were 20 different organizations and more than 45 participants at the heritage symposium, participating in workshops relating to fundraising, volunteerism, communication, strategy, and planning.
Beaulieu said the challenges facing organizations across the region are actually symptomatic of the changing nature of society and how individuals view history and heritage and the importance it plays in society.
“One of the biggest fake news items, probably for the last number of decades, is that history degrees or that the history of the province and the country is not important and integral to society,” he said. “Numerous newspapers have indicated that knowledge of the past is incredibly integral to the advancement of the future. And not just for culture, but also for economics, politics, you name it.”
Pamela Cain, heritage researcher with the city of Thunder Bay and vice chair of the Ontario Historical Society, said despite challenges facing historical societies, there is still interest in the past in Northern Ontario.
“With the Ontario Historical Society in the last two years, we incorporated about six small historical societies in the region,” she said. “So that shows there is a great interest in it. It’s all from the grassroots, so that means it is important to people and that will show the success and interest in it.”
Beaulieu believes Northern Ontario is in a unique position when it comes to overcoming these challenges, primarily, its strength in numbers.
“We’re lucky in Northwestern Ontario, all the organizations represented here and the individuals, we all know each other,” he said. “It’s like a family. These periodic meetings are extremely useful for coming together to understand common challenges and also what we can do as groups.”
One of the initiatives the Lakehead University history department is undertaking is the development of new public history programming involving a more applied approach to history.
Cain added that many organizations focused on preserving the past are often in need of support, and not just financial, but people who are just as passionate about history.
“I think as a community, we should support these initiatives, or become volunteers to help people,” she said. “There are usually very few people involved on the ground. But there are a lot of people who enjoy it.”
