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22 • WATERLOO CHRONICLE • Th ursday, September 14, 2017 Serving your community since 1856 Stay Current... From the latest information on local politics, to minor sports scores to what's going on down the street, visit www.waterloochronicle.ca CONNECTED TO YOUR COMMUNITY Trailblazing women First of its kind, exhibit highlights women's contribution to Canadian history By Joy Struthers Chronicle Sta� The idea for an exhibit about women has been in the works since 2013, when a group of past and current history professors from the University of Waterloo decided they wanted to pay tribute. Gail Cuthbert Brant, author of Canadian Women: A History and professor emerita at Reni- son University College, said it's been a lengthy process. "At the end of the day, it was remarkable how much consensus there was and how it all came together," Cuthbert Brant said. She said the credit should go to former admin- istrative assistant Nancy Birss, who asked her if there were any women's museums in Canada. Cuthbert Brant said there's not. She met with colleagues and they decided to write a proposal for an exhibit instead of a whole museum, and submit it to the Waterloo Region Museum. Th ey wanted to have it fi nished for Can- ada's sesquicentennial. "Th is is the time to have a focus on women … it (1867) was a big year in Canada for women's his- tory," Cuthbert Brant said. She explained it was a year of partial enfran- chisement of women at the federal level and women got the provincial vote for the fi rst time in Ontario. "We wanted to talk about ordinary women, not just achievers who have already been recognized." Cuthbert Brant said it's all about women get- ting together to try to achieve greater equality. "Th e historians on the committee really want- ed to stress the fact that this is not static. Prog- ress is not linear. Th ough there have been great achievements, there is still a long way to go in some areas of women's lives and we wanted to bring it right up to the present," said Cuthbert Brant. Th ey tried to be as inclusive as possible with regard to race and ethnicity, class, religion, and sexual orientation of women. "In a sense, we have tried to highlight the diversity of women's experience," she said. James Jensen, supervisor of collections and exhibits at the Waterloo Region Museum, said the exhibit is designed so that the pieces can be packed up and moved to diff erent locations. "It's something typically done by really big museums throughout Canada," he said. This is an unusual project for The Waterloo Region Museum because the content is about the entire country, and not just the region. Th is massive undertaking took the eff orts of an advisory group, museum staff , and special trades- people. "It's not what people are going to expect to see," said Jensen. He explained there are visuals and text but also video, education, and interactive experiences. "We've really tried to reinforce the experience of everyone in Canada," he said. Some topics addressed in sections of the exhibit are politics and activism, the body and gender, Indigenous issues, violence against women and contributions to sport. "Th ere's actually a giant rod-hockey game that you can play," said Jensen. Th e fi gures are of real women range from his- torical to modern players. People will get to try their hand at different occupations held by women as well, and can use a switchboard or typewriter and see how diffi cult chores like ironing were. "Th ere's programming with our educators … they'll actually take people through a job interview for a clerical worker in the '50s," Jensen said. Th e exhibit aims to share the experiences of real women -- moms and friends and sisters, he said. "We really do try to work in multi-function- al teams to bring a variety of perspectives as we move forward and interact with the public," said Jensen. People learn in different ways, so the intent was to give them an immersive, 3D experience without actually taking on a different environ- ment. Th ere's even a tabletop, touch-screen inter- active for people to learn from. Pieces were brought in, built, and even taken apart for this exhibit. "Th ere is a half a school bus stuff ed into the gallery," he said. A theatre is set up inside it that will take people on a journey through the women's movement to meetings and marches across Canada. Th e idea came from a real bus that was a wom- en's liberation bookmobile called CORA, after pio- neer suff ragist, E. Cora Hind. Women wanted to make women's literature more available in small towns, so they drove out to them. In order to connect the whole activism piece there is a display beside the bus of 350 pins from various marches and organizations. Jensen hopes people will be amazed and learn a lot about women from all walks of life and fi elds of endeavour. "Th ere will be these big towers with portraits of just women, of all diff erent ages and ethnic back- grounds, and they're just people," Jensen said. Every one of these women contributed, he said. For more information visit www.waterloore- gionmuseum.ca. ARTS FOCUS WATERLOO CHRONICLE Trailblazing women WATERLOO CHRONICLE JOY STRUTHERS PHOTO Exhibition installer Jeff Christie paints the school bus display that is a mini-theatre in Trailblazing -- Women in Canada since 1867, a new exhib- it highlighting women's contributions to the country over the last 150 years at the Waterloo Region Museum.