YORKTON -
It was rather interesting that three events happened over the last week in Yorkton that while important on their own, also seem surprisingly interconnected too.
To begin, Wednesday work continued with another public consultation session which is part of an effort by the city to update it’s Culture Policy.
Created in 2009, the policy is one that is supposed to guide Yorkton Council in terms of the recognizing and supporting the community’s varied cultural aspects.
Then Sunday at the Western Development Museum branch in the city Heritage Day was marked.
The event included displays by the Yorkton Chapter of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, and a presentation on the WDM 75th anniversary.
Both the genealogy of individual families, and the collected history of the province housed by the WDM are of course integral elements of the city’s culture.
And then Monday of course was Family Day in Saskatchewan, which again relates to the importance of marking family, and that is again reflected in our culture.
It is such diversity encompassed by the concept of culture which is the challenge of creating a Cultural Policy.
What culture encompasses is frankly just about anything and everything, from the foods we eat, the countries we came from, to the art we enjoy, the music we listen too, to our community history. The list is long, and covering all the aspects with a policy reflective of the importance of each facet is a challenge without it being so general and vague that it is little more than a ‘feel good’ statement that offers little in the way of detail regarding how the municipality should support and enhance culture.
While we await the report on the policy update at some point this March, one thing the three recent events suggest is that locally the community might do more to promote the culture we have.
Centred on Family Day weekend as the related elements were, it seems an appropriate time to once again suggest what we need in Yorkton is a broadly based ‘winter festival.’
We live in a place where winter is a significant part of our year, and pausing in the midst of it to celebrate the snow and the season simply makes sense.
It is far from a new idea – it has been suggested here before – but is worth considering once more.
It need not be an arduous undertaking to start, but if each group in the city simply chose to put on one event – large or small – collectively the result would be a wonderful break in winter, and if it coincided with Family Day weekend, and highlighted our diverse collective culture at the same time it would be a win, win, win for the community.
