Galt earns national recognition for “Voices of the Land” project

By Lethbridge Herald on July 6, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber Galt Museum and Archives CEO Darrin Martens poses inside the rock circle at the local cultural institution. The Galt earned honourable mention by the Canadian Museums Association for an initiative.

Al Beeber – Lethbridge Herald

The Galt Museum and Archives has earned national recognition for its “Voices of the Land” Project.

The Canadian Museums Association has given the the Galt an honourable mention in its Social Impact category,

“Making a notable effort to reimagine the role of museums as the keepers of knowledge, the Galt Museum’s digital content initiative, “Voices of the Land.” Is a skillfully produced addition to its collection,” said the CMA in a release.

“Getting the honourable mention for the work that we are doing with the Indigenous community,  it sends an important signal to us that we are on a good path and the right path and also it really shows that our respect for the Indigenous community, putting their voices first as far as this content,” said Galt CEO Darrin Martens last week.

“The CMA outstanding in social impact award recognizes the significant contribution of a museum in advocating for the advancement of an important social cause such as reconciliation, sustainabilility, development, climate action, better understanding of living together, inclusiveness and wellness. And with respect to the Galt, we really focused on the reconciliation aspect of it,” said Martens.

“Voices of The Land” is “really part of our ongoing commitment to truth and reconciliation. So during the global pandemic, we had to figure out new ways in which to not only connect with our regular community and stakeholders, but also develop content and engagement strategies that would reach a more diversified audience,” said Martens.

“Like many institutions, we turned to the web and looking at digital media. With that, we saw getting advice from our knowledge keepers, from our Elders as well as our Indigenous program coordinator Blanche Bruised Head. We asked what can we do and how could we really meet the moment,” said Martens.

“And what came forward was a number of short and long ideas for videos,” he said.

Some of those videos are related to simple concepts of Blackfoot history and culture, some are longer, he said.

“We have a number of recordings that are three and four minutes as well some which are 45 minutes long, understanding that audiences have different interests in the content, in Blackfoot history and culture.

“We thought it was important to create a variety of different times and different themed subjects,” said Martens.

All of them have been uploaded to the galtmuseum.com website. People can also check the Indigenous and other content on the Galt’s YouTube channel.

Winning the award, said Martens, “is very humbling, I think first and foremost. I know that when we were putting together the submission, we were thinking that we had the opportunity to look back over the past year and a bit and see the kind of content that the Indigenous people were developing, the stories they want to tell and how they wanted to tell it. And we thought we had a fairly good submission because part of our strategic plan, is really rooted around reconciliation. It’s one of the pillars of our strategic plan,” added Martens.

“Providing an opportunity for Indigenous voices to tell their stories from their perspectives, the way that they want – we really sort of stepped back and just provided a platform. This really is a validation of that work we’ve done over the past couple of years and it really I think bolsters our intent to continue doing this work.”

The Galt has also begun hosting a new temporary art installation by Metis artist  Tracey-Mae Chambers at Fort Whoop-Up. More details will be available in Wednesday’s Herald.

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