Saskatchewan begins year-long centennial celebration

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When the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, many people across Saskatchewan didn't just ring in a new year, they also began a year-long celebration of the province's 100th birthday.

The province officially turns a century old on Sept. 4, but celebrations are planned for throughout the year to mark the occasion.

As part of the centennial, special medallions have been designed that will be presented to all Saskatchewan residents who are 100 years old, or who will turn 100 during the centennial year. And, with an eye to the future as well as the past, another medallion was also designed to be given to every baby born in the province on Jan. 1. or on Sept. 4. Those babies will also receive a special-edition $100 Saskatchewan Savings Bond.

"Our provincial centennial year is a special time," said Moose Jaw North MLA Glenn Hagel, chair of the Saskatchewan Centennial."The province-wide celebrations are about our people-past, present and future. These special awards will honour those who have been a part of Saskatchewan's first 100 years of heart and those who will see that tradition carried forth into our second century."

If you're looking for information on centennial celebrations in and around your community, that information is just a click away on the Saskatchewan Centennial 2005 Web site (www.sask2005.ca) where already more than 1,000 events are listed.

One of the special centennial attractions is a travelling multi-media exhibition developed by the Allen Sapp Gallery in North Battleford. Through the Eyes of the Cree is a 4,000 square-foot exhibit that combines the paintings of Allen Sapp with digital images, artifacts, archival photographs and commentary by First Nations Elders and youth.

The exhibit began its 22-month tour this month and will travel to venues in Saskatchewan as well as in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and the Northwest Territories. The exhibit, which was officially unveiled during a special ceremony held in North Battleford on Dec. 2, is currently at the Red Deer Museum in Red Deer, Alta. until March, and then returns to Saskatchewan from May to July, when it will be featured at the Western Development Museum and at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon. It moves to Regina and the provincial legislature in August.

In September, as the province celebrates the official anniversary of its becoming a province Through the Eyes of the Cree will be part of a larger exhibit, Promised Land, at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que.

The exhibit then returns to Saskatchewan to close out the centennial year. It is scheduled to spend November and December at the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw.

In 2006 the exhibit will be featured at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, the Medicine Hat Art Museum in Medicine Hat, Alta. and the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.