Writing Our Past Building Our Future

The Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, the Honourable John Harvard and his wife Her Honour Lenore Berschied on May 6, 2008 sponsored a reception at Government House to celebrate the work of the Councils of Women of Manitoba, one of the oldest women's organization in the Province.
The Councils of Women two years ago undertook the task to put the records of their organization which covered more than 100 years, in order and to present this to the Provincial Archives of Manitoba. The project was fittingly titled Babs Friesen Councils of Women Archival Project because it originated when Babs, a local historian of sorts (she volunteered for umpteen years with the YM-YWCA organization, as a Librarian and record keeper). While Babs worked for the Y she represented the Y on the Council and kept her membership to this date as well as all her records. Now that she is of mature years and can no longer take care of herself she had to go into a home where her basic needs would be taken care of. Well she could not take all that stuff into a one-room place and since she was the storer of all these fantastic records the Council Women as usual pulled up their sleeves and got to work.
They did a lot of the preliminary work of sorting through boxes and boxes of paper and got rid of what could be gotten rid of and left the meat of the records for a professional archivist with funds they received from several non-Government sources but especially from YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction fund. They had records dating back from 1894 to 1984 and from 1949-1980. The records consisted of text, photographs and bound scrap books. This represent a key part of Manitoba history and women's history in particular. These women contributed a lot to our rich mosaic. They lobbied for betterment of women, for families, for marginalized groups in all contexts, historical, personal, political, social, sexual, economic and institutions. This is such important information for the generations of women to come.
I am personally proud of these women. In additon to the text, the project consisted of a oral history component of the voices and experiences of women who have longstanding membership within the council. This was made possible by a grant from the Margaret Laurence Endowment in Women's Studies. The women interviewed included Elaine Adam, Donna Blight, Murdina Brownlee, Joan Butcher, Monika Feist, Eira "Babs" Friesen, Eleanor Gibson, Beverley Goodwin, June Menzies, Leonore Saunders, Monica Singh, Muriel Smith and Donna Mae Yeo. Sally Papso coordinated The oral history, she did all the interviews and ensured the integrity of the project

The evening was rounded off with some delicious baron beef on buns and some fabulous singing by one of Winnipeg's great songbirds, Deborah Romeyn, singer and songwriter. She is going to be releasing her Third Album soon so, watch for that.
Congratulations to the Councils of Women by ensuring that the work of a good number of women has been preserved properly for posterity.