What a Week in Whitehorse! | Quelle semaine à Whitehorse!

We hope you have returned safe, sound and stimulated from the 2013 CMA National Conference; we certainly have! We were treated once again to the genuine hospitality of the people of Whitehorse. Even Mother Nature gave us a warm welcome! It was the perfect setting for learning and networking with some of the best in the museum community. From singing keynote speakers and inspiring award recipients, to throwing atlatls at mock mammoths and panning for gold — the week flew by!

You can relive some of your favourite moments by viewing photos on the CMA Flickr site (can you tell which ones were taken at midnight?), and videos of the Award recipients on the CMA YouTube channel. To see the entertaining “photo-booth” pictures taken during the event at the MacBride Museum of Yukon History, click on this hyperlink and use the access code “museum”. Who knew museum professionals could strike a pose like that? Our thanks to the MacBride Museum for sharing those images and for hosting a wonderful evening.

A Busy Spring and Summer

What a most amazing Conference we just had. You should see my photos of what midnight looks like in Whitehorse! 

The Conference was terrific and I wish everyone could experience the wonderful Yukon hospitality!

While up North, I went to Skagway which is one of the most beautiful drives in the world. Forest, dessert, lakes, barren rocks above the tree line, crossing the Rockies, and then straight down to Skagway. I had lunch in a brothel (now a museum), took a helicopter ride over the mountains, one of which my grandfather climbed on the way to the Klondike looking for gold a century ago (he never found much, just enough for my grandmother’s wedding ring). And then it was back to Whitehorse, where I had the opportunity to have dinner with the Premier of the Yukon, Darrell Pasloski.

I also did several important things before getting to the Yukon, such as attending the Organization of Military Museums of Canada conference in London, ON, attending meetings with the President of the Chinese Museums Association in Toronto, and I was one of three speakers to officially open the new Robert Bateman Museum in Victoria, BC.

And now I’m in New Brunswick, where I will be working for the summer. I want to wish everyone a great summer and look forward to seeing everyone in the fall!

John G. McAvity

Executive Director