Doukhobor Discovery Centre reflects the past and looks to the future
by Betsy Kline - Castlegar News
posted Aug 20, 2016 at 4:00 PM
The Doukhobor Discovery Centre (DDC) has been a constant fixture in the Castlegar heritage and history scene for 45 years, but a lot of changes have taken place in the last three years, making the centre worth another look.
The museum is designed to replicate a traditional Doukhobor village. The first building at the site was built in 1971 from materials that were reclaimed from original Doukhobor villages throughout the region. From that point the museum has continued to grow, adding to that first common building which houses mainly artifacts and recreated bedrooms, a second common building that is home to audio, and visual displays including a photo history timeline.
Other structures include a barn and a blacksmith shop that is full of various tools and blacksmithing implements including an operational forge. The shop is over 100 years old and was relocated from Pass Creek.
An annex building houses a gift shop full of hand-made Doukhobor items, office space and a room full of interactive displays, books and toys for children. A banya or sauna type bath house, and an implement shed filled with outdoor tools can also be toured while visiting the centre.
Many of the recent changes coincide with the arrival the museum's director Lisa Poznikoff, who was raised by Doukhobor parents and spent seven years as the editor of Iskra, a bilingual Russian-English USCC Doukhobor publication. Some of the major changes have been improvements to the centre's grounds. The outdoor spaces reflect a calm and peaceful atmosphere. Lovely hand-made benches offer a place to sit and reflect. The grounds are also graced with a statue of Leo Tolstoy and two rebuilt wagons — a farm wagon and a mountain wagon with padded seats.
Read on at The Nelson Star