Even though the official Manitoba 150 celebrations – which began this past winter and were set to culminate with Unite 150, a huge concert featuring Bachman Cummings – have been postponed until 2021, there’s still a few ways you can celebrate this landmark anniversary virtually.
On Tuesday, May 12, Tourisme Riel will mark the 1870-signing The Manitoba Act, with a free all-day online event.
On both Facebook and the Passion & Histoire Saint-Boniface website, you’ll be able to view At the Heart of Manitoba’s Francophone Community, the 40-minute film which invigoratingly presents two centuries of Métis and Francophone history in the area.
The 2018 production normally can only be screened at the Tourisme Riel Information Centre, and will only be available to be streamed for this one day.
In the words of Michelle Gervais, Tourisme Riel’s director, “we hope that by viewing the film, people will be inspired by the history and motivated to visit the many attractions and businesses in the area once social distancing is over. All these attractions and businesses need our support, now more than ever.”
At the Heart of Manitoba's Francophone Community_promo from CDEM Tourisme on Vimeo.
After viewing, you can play along on Tourisme Riel’s Facebook page, where answering questions about At the Heart of Manitoba’s Francophone Community could win you a sweet prize package to businesses and attractions in the city’s French Quarter.
Nonsuch Brewing Company too is continuing to celebrate Manitoba 150 – with beer! Their #MB150 series will continued this week with the launch of Prairie Common, their spin on the “California Common” style. Here’s how, in their own words, they’ve landed on this beer, “Starting with the heart of any beer, the malt, we sourced base 2-row malt from the prairies. To bring this batch home, we usedChinook hops from @prairiemountainhops. You can find a little taste of home in ALL our beers – we've been brewing them exclusively with Manitoba spring water since day one.”
This beer is available online now, with same-day delivery available on orders before 2 p.m.
Nonsuch Brewing is of course named after The Nonsuch, the famed 17th century ketch whose near life-sized replica is one of the marquee attractions of the Manitoba Museum, where it has been housed for the past 46 years.
The Nonsuch is part of the Manitoba Museum’s HBC Museum Collection, which features some of Canada’s most-important artifacts and is celebrating its 350th anniversary on Saturday, May 2.
This online event, which will run as a free webinar, is part of the ManitobaMuseum@Home series, and it will also mark 350 years of The Hudson Bay Company.
This experience, which will take place on Zoom (you can register here), will be hosted by Dr. Amelia Fay, the Manitoba Museum's Curator of the HBC Collection. Dr. Fay will be fielding questions, while also showing some of the most note-worthy artifacts from the collection.