Immigration.ca - Canada Immigration News - November 2009
A Halifax museum commemorating immigration is becoming only the second outside of Ottawa to be officially named a national museum of Canada.
Pier 21 preserves and honours the memories of 1.5 million of immigrants who landed at this spot in Halifax at the end of their journey to Canada. Now the museum will also honour their generosity, as donations from former-migrants-turned-Canadians have allowed for Pier 21 to expand.
Until now the museum’s exhibitions only covered the story of immigration between 1924 and 1971. However, since being named a national museum last year, Pier 21 has been hard at work gathering the information and materials necessary to cover the country’s entire history of immigration.
“[The expansion] will allow for us to tell the longer story of immigration,” said CEO of the museum Bob Moody. “It will allow us to truly reflect that. Over time our exhibits will be expanded. We will become more accessible.”
As a national museum, Pier 21 is now eligible to receive government funding which should help in their expansion goals. However, it will continue to benefit from private donors, many of whom donate because they were once immigrants to Canada themselves, and want to give back to the land that brought them prosperity.
The museum honoured those donors in a ceremony early this month.
Source: Globe and Mail
