Listen to stories about some of the brilliant and brave women of Salmon Arm’s past at this year’s Speak of the Dead cemetery tour.
The year’s tour, on Sunday, Oct. 1, is presented by R.J. Haney Heritage Village and Museum’s registrar of collections, Erin Stodola.
Stodola will share tales of the women who raised children, ran businesses and brought their community together. Women who braved new towns and possibilities far away from what they knew. Women who danced for hours and needed help getting out of bed the next morning because their legs were so stiff.
“History is told by the victors, they say,” said Stodola. “It is a common gripe of researchers, genealogists, museum professionals and their contemporaries, that the women of history are too often obscured and even erased. Mostly taking the last name of her husband, and often being referred to as Mrs. Husband’s Full Name, women can seem like an afterthought – an accessory to a man – in historical records. As a minor detail themselves, it is difficult to find fulsome and notable information about women.
“But of course, women have always been doing spectacular things with their lives and influencing those around them.”
Finding these stories is an exercise in detective work and reading between the lines, while taking care to not make assumptions, said Stodola. This year’s tour around the Mount Ida Cemetery will focus on these less told people of yesterday’s history, with some other interesting characters of all kinds thrown in.
The tour begins at 1 p.m. Space is limited, so call 250-832-5243 to reserve your spot. Cost of the program is $12 and includes a hot chocolate.
Submitted
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