BRUNSWICK – The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum will sponsor its fifth annual Family Day from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, in Hubbard Hall on the Bowdoin College campus.
“Trading Treasures for Fun” takes its theme from the museum’s current exhibit, “Treasures and Trinkets: Collecting Culture in the North.”
Before contact with the Westerners, Inuit did a great deal of bartering among themselves, and one of the first things Inuit and early European explorers did when they first met was to trade, according to the museum.
Inuit traded both raw materials and finished goods with one another, and they often sought glass beads, cloth and metal from visiting Westerners. The European whalers and fur traders were interested in whale oil, furs and ivory carvings, while later visitors wanted mementos of their travels. As a result, Inuit began producing miniature sledges, beadwork, baskets and dolls for exchange. Examples of many of these trade items are on exhibit at the Arctic Museum.
Since “Trading Treasures for Fun” picks up on this theme, the museum is asking families participating in Family Day to bring a nonperishable food item (the treasure) to trade for a few hours of fun. All items collected will be donated to a local food bank.
During Family Day, younger children can draw pictures, create a refrigerator magnet and string beads for a bracelet. Older children can make a sledge from craft sticks, bead paper clips for a bracelet and make paper-bag puppets. Everyone can listen to an Inuit myth and try the kayak race.
Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m. The museum is closed Mondays and national holidays.
Admission to the museum is free. For more information, people may call 725-3416.
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