RAINY RIVER -- The Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Historical Centre on the Rainy River is hosting an open house on Saturday.
The museum is using the event to welcome visitors and also to publicly thank the Ontario Trillium Foundation for a funding grant of $224,200.00 used to support operations and salaries.
“We got this grant last fall and [the Trillium Foundation] contribution has helped us reach out into the community and past the community to provide educational opportunities that may not necessarily be available due to costs or travel,” said Jessie Richard the archivist and grant manager for the centre.
She said the funding was especially helpful to help the centre through the COVID pandemic.
The national historical centre located on the long rapids of the Rainy River near Stratton includes an indoor museum space and outdoor trails. “Our entire exhibit and all of our artifacts [are] focused on the traditional Ojibwe life here on Rainy River,” she said. The centre provides golf cart tours and wagon rides through the historical burial mounds, she said.
The centre gets the bulk of its funding through the provincial government. It is also partially owned by the Rainy River First Nation, said Richard.
“[The] big focus is providing accessible and educational programming for people of the community people [and] outside of our community. Especially providing classes where people of Treaty 3 can come in and learn how to make regalia or other important items of culture.”
She said the open house will include free entry to the museum, a fish fry, and wagon rides through the mounds.
For more information, visit the Manitou Mounds Facebook page.
