• Immigrating with everything - including the kitchen sink.
    In the Museum’s Pier 21 Story exhibition , there is a section called Treasures From Home , with artifacts and props representing what immigrants brought with them as they sailed to Canada. The objects are contained in a large wooden case and include many different objects: a bicycle, a pair of …
  • The tiny Lebanese village that changed the face of Halifax
    Left: The mountain village of Diman and surrounding villages (photo courtesy of Jasmine Ghosn); right: The 161 unit Brenton Suites building, backgrounded by the 84 unit Trillium building, both projects led by Diman-born developer Wadih Fares. In the north of Lebanon, 1,400 metres above sea level, …
  • Why isn’t it called “Japantown”?
    © Government of Canada. Reproduced with the permission of Library and Archives Canada (2023). Source: Library and Archives Canada/RG18, vol. 3567, file c315-36-3. Page 119/136 Many Canadian cities have a Chinatown. There are neighbourhoods called Greektown, Little Italy and Little Portugal. In …
  • Why Kids Should Play in the Museum
    A grade 3 class is enjoying one of the Museum’s temporary exhibitions called Kids Celebrate! They are in their school uniforms. The exhibition focuses on 12 special times of the year. From Christmas to Diwali to Carnival, each is a day or a period of time celebrated by kids and families in Canada. …
  • “When Mom saw the picture, it was very emotional”
    Maria Zampini returned to the site of her arrival in Canada, 61 years later. Tony Antonitti had already planned his trip to the Museum, part of a tour of the Maritimes with his wife Tina. Living in Montreal, they were looking forward to returning to the place where their parents, like hundreds of …
  • Basket Weaving and Being Welcomed in Mi’kmaki
    “I don't consider myself a basket maker” An interview with artist-in-residence Virick Francis about art-making, finding solutions and what it means to be welcomed by Mi’kmaq. Virick Francis, photo by Isabel Francis Photo. When did you start weaving? In my early teens, I was making big baskets with …
  • An Incomplete Portrait of Canada
    Photographs capture time. They tell fragments of stories. The Museum is full of photographs. In our permanent exhibitions, a huge floor-to-ceiling photograph from 1914 of the passengers of SS Komagata Maru looms over part of our museum- a haunting memory of faces turned away by the racist …
  • Narrow Escapes to Canada
    We sometimes refer to this institution as a museum of stories. Stories of arrivals, of departures, of new beginnings. Among the stories are incredible, and often harrowing, accounts of escape. These are two stories of escape , from different places and time periods. They both ended with a new life …
  • Conciliation and peaceful futures through art
    shalan joudry (pictured onstage) is the author of the the poem Kmɨtkinu, which was adapted into a dance piece with collabotors Sarah Prosper, Susanne Chui, Sara Coffin, Isaac Abriel, Robert Azevedo, I'thandi Munro, Sam Penner and NAT Chantel. Photo by Kevin MacCormack “We are not the only ones …
  • Uncovering secrets of the popular miniature Pier 21 model
    Passengers await their train to destinations across Canada. The model of Pier 21 is full of activity . The miniature representation is a favourite of many visitors of the Museum . The model, roughly 8 feet by 4 feet, depicts a day in the mid to late 1950s, during the period when the building was …