Mesfin Gebremichael picks up an ancient goatskin scroll likely created in the 1600s.
“It’s a prayer to St. Gabriel and St. Michael, and it’s in the old Ge’ez language,” he said, a sense of wonder in his voice.
“It’s written by hand with handmade colours on parchment. This parchment is made from goatskin. You can see the skill because it’s preserved.”
The geophysicist originally from Ethiopia was on a special tour of Calgary’s Glenbow Museum collections, a place normally off-limits to the public.
But in preparation for the grand reopening after the renovation, museum curators are working with three local communities to co-create exhibits that will increase the diversity of what’s on display. These exhibits on Ethiopia, Mexico and Indonesia will also surface many rarely-seen artifacts kept in storage for years.
And local community members from these countries get to have a key role in choosing what stories to tell with the artifacts.
Curator Joanne Schmidt says they have thousands of artifacts that were donated or bought over the years.
“We have collections, almost 40,000 cultural belongings from communities all over the world,” she said. “It’s been really important to ensure that these communities know what Glenbow has and feel welcome and safe here.”
The Glenbow has been better known for its displays of Western Canadian history and Indigenous culture, although it’s also had an exhibit on West African that stayed up for years.
The $175-million renovation project will create more display space on multiple floors, and additional staff have been hired to program it. Staff hope to keep each co-created community exhibit up for one year, and work with three communities a year to tell these stories.
“If they want to talk about something that’s challenging, then we welcome that,” Schmidt said. “But if they want to tell a different story, then we’re leaving that open to community members to just have their say.”
The museum closed for renovation three years ago and is now on track to reopen in 2026.
These cultural artifacts are stored in drawers in the collections area, which looks like a sterile laboratory across the upper floors. The Ethiopian-Canadian group that toured recently admired the scroll, called a branna, and a traditional milk jug, a mosab or wicker bread basket for the flatbread injera, and a hair pick from the Oromo region.
They’re just at the start of the process of deciding what artifacts to display.
Adanech Sahilie is a history buff who also runs a small community non-profit, Immigrant Outreach Services. She was taken aback to see one particular artifact.
“To see this big cross here, it’s a really shocking experience,” she told Schmidt. “You never see it outside of the church, so I don’t know how they got it. Maybe the priest might struggle, like this belongs to the church. It cannot be even outside of the church.'”
But Schmidt told her that’s exactly the kind of feedback she wants to hear.
“We have a lot of respect for the fact that this can be a really emotional experience,” she said.
“You choose what goes on display. If something really shouldn’t go on display, then we will not, there is no pressure.'”
These community displays will be in a lobby space on the sixth floor. They will be included in what’s free for public viewing once the museum reopens.
Schmidt says she hopes it will increase the sense of belonging for people from all ethnic backgrounds in this city.
“I think that sense of just belonging at Glenbow is really important. Acknowledging the complicated history of Glenbow, but also making sure that communities have that ability to tell their own story in their own way.”
Calgary’s Glenbow Museum is getting a facelift and its new terrace is being imagined by famous American designer Maya Lin — who’s behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Across Canada and Europe, museums have been wrestling with how to work with communities in a more open and collaborative manner. That public debate often centres on items that were stolen from Indigenous communities when Europeans arrived and then displayed in museums without the full context of what contemporary Indigenous communities were experiencing.
In some cases, regalia and sacred artifacts have been returned, but in 2022, the Canadian Museums Association estimated 6.7 million Indigenous objects and human remains are still held by Canadian institutions.
For the Glenbow, most of these conversation have been focused on the Indigenous artifacts in the collection. But there is also a global conversation that’s just starting about the artifacts museums hold from Africa and other places, said Schmidt.
“We have things from all over the world that these collectors went out and got,” Schmidt told the group. “These days, museums know that’s not ethical.
“When we’re creating your community display, [that might be] something you want to reflect on — about how it makes you feel. Maybe it’s a little bit positive and a little bit negative. Maybe it’s nice to be able to connect with these things when you’re not at home, but at the same time, you acknowledge that this is the cultural patrimony of a country and it’s here in Canada,” she said. “We really encourage open, honest conversations.”
That context aside, at the end of this local tour, the small group of Calgary residents with ties to Ethiopia were all smiles.
“It makes me really happy,” said Sahilie. “In the near future, [these artifacts are] going to be accessible for the public, and it’s really great to see your culture right in a foreign land. I feel amazed; I feel happy.”
Student Kalkidan Debele added: “It just felt good being represented. Someone knows about my culture.”
“A lot of immigrants make up Canada, so to have a Canadian museum represent these different communities, I think it’s so beautiful. Especially to see my own culture and to be able to pick [what gets displayed] and have that authority, it’s just so amazing, so I’m really happy.”
Last fall, CBC Calgary launched a new community project with local East African community members. This included a workshop to help young adults to tell stories of importance to their community and mentorship from CBC producer Elise Stolte.
Check out other reporting sparked by this partnership.