(rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

saturday and sunday

Pioneer Days back in full form at Sunnybrook Farm Museum

Aug 20, 2022 | 2:02 PM

The annual fixture known as Pioneer Days is going on today (Aug. 21) and Sunday at Sunnybrook Farm Museum in south Red Deer.

The long-running event, which is open from 8-4 each day, is sticking with tradition coming out of the pandemic, with the Pioneer breakfast, tractor pulls, threshing, homemade pies, animals, silent auction and much more.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t evolving, says Executive Director Ian Warwick.

“What we’re celebrating is the original homestead of James and Catherine Bower who moved here in 1899. We’re trying to showcase the hardships and difficulties pioneers experienced, and the investment it took to get clothing and food back before electricity, and when life was a bit different,” says Warwick.

“That said, we are working on integrating Indigenous stories here. One of those is called Stolen Harvest, which alludes to when the Indigenous folks of the day weren’t allowed to sell their grain and it just wasn’t an equal situation. We want to do that, but we need partners because it isn’t really our story to tell.”

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Warwick says the fact Indigenous folks weren’t allowed to do business while settler-operated farms profited off the land is “unbelievable.”

One of the buildings on-site, he notes, is home to the Red Deer Aboriginal Dance Troupe.

The land on which Sunnybrook Farm sits was donated for use an an agricultural museum by Norman and Iva Bower in 1988. Norman, the youngest son of James and Catherine, had passed it on to him in the 1930s.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Warwick says the society’s biggest challenge is attracting volunteers, as some have moved on while others have passed away.

“We’re here to preserve the Bowers’ gift,” says Warwick of the museum’s mission year-round. “We broke even both years of the pandemic thanks to federal and provincial supports. We wouldn’t have gone bankrupt, but we would’ve struggled.

“This is our busiest weekend of the year. It’s for the very young and very old, and all in between, so come on out.”

Admission is $15 for a family, or $5 per person. More information is at sunnybrookfarmmuseum.ca.