BUFFALO NATIONS MUSEUM SEEKING HELP DURING COVID-19
The Buffalo Nations Museum in Banff closed its doors on Monday March 16, 2020, to flatten the curve of COVID-19. Normally, the museum is a learning center for community and visitors from around the world to share knowledge about Canadian Aboriginal Peoples. Currently, this historic building, constructed by Norman Luxton in 1953, is without caring and loyal staff. Maintaining the 15,000 square foot log fort is expensive without daily revenue from admissions and gift sales. Operating expenses, while closed, add up to a minimum of $3,500 per month to protect the building and the artifacts. Reserves for working capital will allow us to pay current bills and continue until May 31/2020.
The museum is kindly seeking your help to pay operating expenses beyond May 31. These essential expenditures are for: insurance, gas, electricity, water, phone, internet, security, and roof management to remove the snow and water from the flat roof.
If the heritage building survives, the museum will continue its mandate as an educational link to cross-cultural communication. The following beautiful events scheduled for 2020 have been cancelled or deferred as they are ethically, logistically, and financially unlikely to happen this year during the COVID crisis.
- 5th Annual Banff Iiniskim Cross-Cultural Powwow June 13, 2020, which was to attract 2,000 persons, has been cancelled.
- Sacred Buffalo Mountain Guardian Gathering on Tunnel Mountain in Banff was to be held 2 weeks after the first spring thunder, to integrate the story of the buffalo into Banff National Park and the Town of Banff.
- Spirit of White Buffalo parade entry, supported by Calgary Animated Objects Society and Buffalo Treaty Committee, a 12-foot tall human-powered kinetic sculpture of a white buffalo accompanied by 26 persons, a reminder that, together we are stronger, a message deeply rooted in the Bow Valley that we wished to share across Canada by participating in the Banff Canada Day parade and the Calgary Stampede Parade.
- National Film Day April 22, a talk on climate change by Arctic guide David German followed by the new film release A Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk. On a large scale, the story of forced relocation of a nomadic Inuit man has parallels with the prospect of enormous change of lifestyle in the north due to climate change.
- Opening exhibit party, Len Morissette, Cree Medicine Wheel, photographs taken during the making of an opioid addiction film for Alberta Friendship Centers.
- Opening exhibit party, Bev Simms, Water is Life, perspectives from science and Aboriginal cultural value of water.
- Opening exhibit party, D'Arcy Moses, Arctic in Colour, couture is art, stories in the hides.
- Opening exhibit party, Spirits of Dancing Buffalos, Horses, and Elders, the pageantry of puppetry illuminating the unity of animals and people.
- Salmon Festival, a conference and dinner, to advocate the return of salmon to the Upper Columbia River Drainage to Canal Flats with the Shuswap and other First Nations, Elder and Intertribal Fishery Commission talks, booths, dancing, and song.
There’s a past and a future inside the walls of this museum.
Please donate to help charities which help people first, and if you have any contributions left over, please save the Buffalo Nations Museum to continue connecting people for many more generations. From the Board, management, and staff of the Buffalo Nations Museum, thanking you with greatest respect for your vision!
Charitable donation tax receipt available upon request for all donations.
- In Person: Donations of any size are always gratefully accepted on-premesis.
- Online: Donate any amount, by clicking on the DONATE NOW button.
- Email: Please contact us at angelikacpa@gmail.com
- Mail: The Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum Box 850 Banff, AB T1L 1A8 Canada
Please make cheques payable to the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum. Contact us at 403-762-0965 if you have any questions.
