This summer the museum was hosting The Witness Blanket art installation and so I decided to take some visitors to check it out. We should have allowed more time! 

If you haven’t been there lately, the museum, which is located at 110 North Street, Goderich and open all year, celebrated its 75th anniversary on July 4. Founded by Joseph Herbert Neill, it provides an interesting and interactive way to learn about the history of Huron County and the people who lived here through the years. 

Herbie, as he was known, was born in Gorrie and gathered more than 1,000 objects that he eventually offered to Huron County. Along with selling his collection for $4,000, Herbie also attached two conditions to the sale – that the County create a museum to display it and that he be named curator for life. 

As with many ideas, this one was called “crazy” by some, but the museum opened in 1951 and is still going strong after a major expansion in 1989. Walking through the museum helped me feel a connection to my ancestors who came to Huron County in the 1850s. Many of Herbie’s items were interactive and allowed visitors to touch, operate, and learn how things worked. 

A “Butter Making Model” that Herbie constructed and donated was one example that stood out for me. The interactive model depicted butter making through the centuries, beginning about 2000 B.C.E. Complete with model camels, horses, and people, I learned that humans started making butter by attaching milk-filled bags to camels. The movement as the camel walked eventually turned the milk to butter. By 1300, people were attaching milk-filled bags to trees and shaking the bags to complete the operation.

In 1959, the County purchased a 90-tonne CPR engine that was used at the Goderich Harbour and Herbie and his friends moved it to the museum. The museum expansion was built around the engine allowing visitors to get a good look and climb inside. The area around the train depicts a typical Huron County village main street, including the sign from the Walton United Church.

The museum depicts pioneer settlements and way of life throughout the area, so we were excited that it was also hosting the Witness Blanket reproduction over the summer. It provided a link to our history that was not shown in other areas of the museum. The Witness Blanket installation highlighted Canada’s residential school system enacted upon Indigenous peoples.
Residential schools were government-sponsored, church-run institutions created to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into settler ways of life. These residential schools existed across Canada for more than a century. 

In 2013 and 2014 the Witness Blanket team collected 887 pieces of donated and reclaimed items that were used in construction of the Blanket. Carey Newman, artist of the Witness Blanket is quoted in the exhibit, saying that the involvement of people across Canada is “a testament to the human ability to find something worthwhile, even beautiful, amidst the tragedies, memories and ruins of the residential school era.” 

The purpose of the Blanket is to share the stories represented by artifacts connected to residential school experiences.  As part of the exhibit, Elder Stan MacKay is quoted about the Witness Blanket: “The stories witnessed the loneliness and abuses children suffered. But they also represent the children’s acts of courage.” 

It included an interactive opportunity with a Call to Action that encouraged visitors to add to a collaborative art project. Visitors were invited to design a paper shape symbolizing their individual commitment to Truth and Reconciliation. The designs were encouraged to incorporate one of the seven grandfather teachings – wisdom, love, respect, courage, honesty, humility, and truth. 

The original Witness Blanket is housed permanently at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, Manitoba and was created by Carey Newman, Master Carver. His traditional name is Hayalthkin’geme and he was inspired to create it by his father Victor’s experiences at residential school. Two reproductions are travelling across Canada to provide more people with a chance to witness and reflect both on the tragedy of residential schools and reconciliation. 

Learning about our history, both the good and bad aspects, can help us move forward in a more positive way and hopefully learn from our mistakes. 

It was an interesting day reflecting on the struggles of the settlers who braved crossing the ocean and forever changed the place we now call Canada. But we were also confronted with the atrocities that were inflicted on the people who lived here before us. They are both part of our shared history. 

The Witness Blanket reproduction has moved on from Huron County, but you can find it at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre until November 30, 2026.  Learn more at https://witnessblanket.ca. ◊