The RCA Museum at Canadian Forces Base, Shilo, has opened their doors to the public for a new exhibition, 'In the Service of Peace”.

'In the Service of Peace', chronicles the Canadian experience in peacekeeping, and peacemaking, missions, from the 1950's to present day.

"Our new exhibit covers peacekeeping topics via location, such as Africa, the Balkans, Cyprus, the Middle East and Southeast Asia," explains RCA Museum Director, Andrew Oakden. "We include a lot of artifacts. We have an observation post, as well as 3 peace-keeping vehicles;  an Iltis, a Track Lynx and an AVPG Grizzly.  We also packed the exhibit with personal artifacts from soldiers who participated in peacekeeping missions."

"'In the Service of Peace', tells the story of Canadians who put themselves in harm’s way in the name of peace," he adds.

"It explores the diversity of peace operations from the United Nations to NATO and other missions. The stories of individual Canadian peacekeepers, both Gunners and those who serve with them, are told using their photographs, uniforms and documents." 

Many of the items came from the museum's collection of 65,000 artifacts, built up over the past 60 years.  "My Senior Curator, Jonathon Ferguson, has been working on this exhibit for the last 6 months," shares Oakden, "so he deserves all the credit for putting it together."

It was a great summer for the RCA Museum, with the number of visitors being close to pre-pandemic days.  Being an artillery museum at CFB Shilo, the building houses and showcases thousands of artifacts from over decades of military service.

"We cover the last 150 years of the Canadian Artillery. We're known as being a war museum so we have large World War I and WW II displays, and we just updated our Afghanistan display."

With the start to school just days away, Oakden says they welcome classroom teachers and students to come and learn more about Canada's peacekeeping missions overseas through school tours.

"Canada has a long and proud history of peacekeeping and we hope to get some schools to come for a tour.  Usually school tours take about an hour, and we're more than happy to do that!"

The RCA Museum is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm.

'In the Service of Peace', will be open to the pubic until May 2023.

Visit the RCA Museum website, or click HERE!