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Museum conference attracts 200 to Parksville

This is the first time the Parksville Museum and Archives has hosted the conference
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IMPORTANT HISTORY: Snaw-naw-as Chief David Bob spoke of the importance of history at the B.C. Museum Association’s annual conference in Parksville last Thursday. The delegates

Over 200 museum professionals from across the province were in Parksville last week for the B.C. Museum Association's 57th annual conference.

"Our young people are very fortunate that they can go see regalia in your museum," said Snaw-naw-as (Nanoose) Chief David Bob, speaking of the importance of history to a lunch audience Thursday at Tigh-Na-Mara.

"Our history is handed down through the people — we don't have a building to keep it in," he said, explaining that his grandfather burnt all of their regalia when settlers started coming to the area and told his family they would have to learn to live together.

Bob said that didn't work so well, speaking of times when their sacred items like masks were taken without permission to be put on display, He sounded optimistic that issue has now been rectified.

This is the first time the Parksville Museum and Archives has hosted the conference and society president Buddy Williams was proud to point to their co-operation with the First Nations and the City of Parksville in developing a professionally run facility