Passport To Culture Journey Through Erie Ridge

Those who took the “Passport to Culture” excursion from Highgate to North Buxton on Saturday were treated to an eclectic glimpse of the territory of the Erie Ridge Cultural Action Team (CAT). It was a journey recognised by Culture Days Canada in Saturday’s Globe & Mail double page advertisement which highlighted only 26 of the 4,500+ activities taking place “from coast to coast to coast” in this Canada-wide initiative.

Many weekend culture travellers started at the Ridgetown Farmers’ Market, stocking up for one of the last times this season with fresh produce, baked goods and homemade crafts. Only two Saturdays remain for this year’s popular “Buy Local, Buy Fresh” event.

“Buy Local, Buy Handmade” is the guiding principle of the CKEtsy Team whose members were featured in the Highgate United Church / Mary Webb Centre. Photographs, jewellery, fibre art and paintings filled the lower level of the rare round church while upstairs visitors were given guided tours of the building by members of The Mary Webb Centre committee. The committee hopes to preserve the historic church as a multi-use cultural and community centre.

The Erie Ridge trip took passport holders to Mayor’s Heritage Award winning Mittons Jewellers on Ridgetown’s Main Street for the inaugural solo jewellery exhibition of local artist Brenda Braun. Braun’s love of vintage and found objects is evident in her creative installation in Mittons’ antique display cabinets where historic photographs and “recovered” old frames provide a background to her unique necklaces, rings and pins. The Braun show has been extended into this week so there is still a chance to see this innovative work.

European culture remains on display at the Ridgetown Public Library with featured travel books, fiction set in European centres and a film tour of Europe. Librarian Vera Todd congratulated those who successfully completed the information quiz whose winner will be announced in her next The View from My Desk column.

Blenheim offered three stops on the journey. Lynda Goldhawk featured her hand painted furniture and glassware in her Talbot Street West shop Antiquated Joys. These remain on display although they are selling fast so you will have to hurry to see them.

Around the corner, local history is always present in the Freedom Library and Museum. Situated in a former Presbyterian Church, this educational facility contains an impressive collection of biographies, videotapes, artifacts and reference books related to local area veterans. Mary Rumble and her team, which included a Kandahar, Afghanistan veteran, shared their extensive knowledge of our military past.

The Blenheim Historical Society contains local historical and genealogical records in Heritage House on Sandys Street South. The 1870s building was recently gifted to the municipality by Kathleen Muderwell whose family has lived there since 1893. On Saturday she, Blenheim Heritage Society President Stan Uher and Society Board Chair Doug Burnett greeted visitors and showed off displays of household items from the 1800s as well as historical details about local families and events.

Both Heritage House and the Freedom Library and Museum are volunteer-run with restricted hours but can be open by appointment for research or group visits. Both emphasise their continuing search for more records to add to their extensive libraries and their eagerness to make information they already have available to the public.

The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum is another valuable repository of local memorabilia and knowledge. It is on the original site of the Elgin Settlement, one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad for hundreds of fugitive slaves. Known as the most successful settlement for refugees of slavery in Canada West, it is one of the few remaining Black Canadian Settlements still in existence since the pre-Civil War era.

Museum curator Shannon Prince offered a free day for Passport to Culture participants on Saturday and arranged for three artists whose family roots ran deep in Buxton to display their work. Brandon Shadd showed pencil portraits of family, friends and celebrities; Dolores Harold shared images of young people dealing with life’s challenges; Irene Moore Davis showed her free flowing images and allowed visitors to create their own paintings using an epiphania transfer technique.

Three members of the New Hope Beaders, an outreach group of the Missionary Society of the North Buxton Community Church, demonstrated their jewellery-making skills with hand made beads purchased from women in Uganda. Revenue generated from jewellery sales goes to support the Midabini and Meali schools in the Rift Valley in Tanzania.

With funding from the Community Futures Development Corporation of Chatham-Kent and with the active cooperation of the Blenheim BIA and the Ridgetown Chamber of Commerce, Saturday’s journey touched only a few historical and cultural options available in the Erie Ridge region. It is hoped this initiative will start everyone on their personal investigation of the riches on offer to us all every day.

The Erie Ridge Cultural Action Team is supported by Create CK.

marlee@ckdp.ca