By Sarah Klein
Canadian Museum for Human Rights (AARON COHEN / CMHR)
Ten stories from 10 core galleries at the soon-to-open Canadian Museum for Human Rights were put on display Wednesday.
The galleries share the diversity of content visitors will see when the museum opens to the public in September.
“The museum will share stories of human rights from Canada and around the world through film, text, immersive technology, artifacts and art,” said CMHR president and CEO Stuart Murray. “While the museum’s scope is global, the stories we feature are intensely personal.”
The core galleries include:
- South Africa’s historic election of Nelson Mandela 20 years ago
- Indigenous perspectives, explored through a poem from an Innu poet, songwriter and documentary filmmaker and a spirit panel – an original work of art collected as part of a nation-wide program engaging Aboriginal youth
- Teenager Maréshia Rucker,who used social media to convince other parents and students to hold a racially integrated prom in 2013 in Georgia, U.S.
- Canadian children’s rights advocate Craig Kielburger, a modern-day human rights defender and the co-founder of the Free the Children charity and We Day
- Andréanne Pâquet, who created a photo exhibit promoting understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims by exploring the reasons women choose to wear the hijab
- A child-friendly exploration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through illustrated flip-cards
- The 1940s experience of Viola Desmond, a Black Nova Scotian businesswoman arrested and charged after sitting in the whites-only section of a movie theatre
- Tawney Meiorin, the British Columbia firefighter who was fired after failing a newly instituted fitness test and challenged her case all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada
- Two Canadians whose stories are featured in Museum exhibits – Sigi Wassermann and Ali Saeed – shared their stories with media in person.
Opening weekend celebrations, including preview tours, are outlined on the museum’s website.
