Passing On

Over the past month I’ve been pondering what it means to pass on. This started because my Dad passed away unexpectedly at the end of October. He was a natural storyteller, and over the past year we’ve been writing a book together for his granddaughter, putting stories with family photos and capturing his memories. We didn’t finish before he passed, and I’m feeling very conscious of the information that is lost forever. But I also know that more and more stories will reveal themselves as I talk to family members and friends, and in that way the book will never really be finished.

A week after we lost Dad, my little family got on a plane for Europe, where I presented our Unlocking Collections work in Amsterdam at CIDOC 2024 – ICOM’s committee on collections documentation. Dad was so proud of my proposal being accepted, and was so excited for Allie to have her first international adventure.

Dad was the one who passed on the family stories, including that Amsterdam is where my Kierstead ancestor left for the Americas as a surgeon with the Dutch East India Company, way back in the 1600s. He also introduced me to Second World War history at a very young age, sharing his family’s personal experiences and watching every war movie ever made. It was humbling to have the chance to talk about this history with Allie by visiting Anne Frank’s house and seeing the Annex, and stopping to read some of the thousands of stumbling stones on the city’s sidewalks that document victims of the Holocaust. I know Dad would be pleased that his granddaughter is gaining an appreciation of history and understanding of the horrors of war, especially having the opportunity to visit these significant places.

Spending the week at CIDOC with like-minded museum people, geeking out over the power and importance of documentation, was a week spent talking about passing on. From big picture concepts about data transparency to nitty-gritty details about documenting scent, it was a fascinating discussion and learning time. It also felt very familiar. Everyone is facing the same issues with inconsistent records, digitization backlogs, and project wish lists, and everyone in that auditorium works to ensure that culture and history is passed on to the next generation.

Just like Dad’s book for Allie, this work is never done; never will be done. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing really great work. Our small province is proof of that. As people complained about their databases and shared screenshots of outdated systems that don’t match museum needs or public expectations, I felt quite proud of what we’ve accomplished and the path that we are on. We’ve been slowly but surely working away in the collections, cataloguing and researching and digitizing and enriching. We are passing all of this on to a new generation of museum workers and the public. And that’s what it’s all about.

RIP Dad. We love you, we miss you, and we promise to keep passing the stories on.

~Karin