11 Peggy McKercher Conservation Site
A project led by Dr. Ryan Walker,
University of Saskatchewan
The Peggy McKercher Conservation Site is a Meewasin Valley Authority property within the highly urbanized region of Saskatoon. Dr. Ryan Walker of the University of Saskatchewan is a representative of and consultant for the Peggy McKercher Conservation Site. Ryan described the rich intangible cultural heritage connections this site has with a wide variety of groups based in Saskatchewan. The Meewasin Valley Authority is a partnership among the City of Saskatoon, the University of Saskatchewan, and the Province of Saskatchewan. The Meewasin Valley Authority is in charge of undertaking the programming of the cultural and natural heritage of this site, in consultation with the public and with a board of directors.
Dr. Ryan Walker explained the importance of dialogue and collaboration: “I see intangible heritage best kept alive through dialogue and conversation and interpretation. […] Were there practices that were important on that site that ought to be considered and shared with dialogue with others? And, even when things are visible on a site and tangible, as such, they still need to be part of an ongoing dialogue of relevance […]. I think that the most powerful heritage resources we have, whether they be tangible or intangible, are those that are kept alive through stories or practices, because those are the things that people will hold an allegiance to and value and will really affect people’s lives and that go beyond a momentary aesthetic experience […].” The value of dialogue in the preservation of heritage is crucial to the ongoing conservation effort in Saskatchewan and at the Peggy McKercher Conservation Site.
The Peggy McKercher Conservation Site is located on rare native grasslands and was named after Canadian conservationist Peggy McKercher (who served as chair of the Meewasin Valley Authority). It is a natural landscape that has been thriving for thousands of years. Prior to settler society claiming ownership of this area, Plains First Nations and Métis communities called this area home. A series of homesteaders began moving into the area where they turned the small part of the native prairie landscape into farms. In the 1940s Archie Lamarche, a Saskatoon based lawyer, decided his family should have a rural upbringing like he had. He purchased land from the homestead family that had settled there. A cabin was built near the water spring which Inidgenous peoples once used as a resting point. The Lamarche family later sold the property to the Catholic Church to use as a retreat site for nuns. In 1963, the Mother Superior met with other leaders of the church at the Lamarche cabin to encourage the various orders to use the site as a retreat with the idea that different orders could build their own cabins on the property. A chapel was built on the property as well. The Catholic church used this area, which they called Maryville, as a retreat until the 1990s. As modesty in public is important to Catholic nuns this retreat area was useful for the nuns to feel free to play volleyball,basketball, baseball, ride horses, go swimming, and partake in other activities away from the public eye. It was a seasonal retreat site that opened in June and closed in September. In the late 1990s, it was deemed that the Maryville retreat, once the Lamarche “ranch,” was mostly unbroken native prairie.
Though there was built heritage in the area, and the material imprint is important to the overall picture, the story of the spiritual heritage and reconnection to the land for the users of the area is what makes it special. What is now the Peggy McKercher Conservation Area is a representation of how built heritage ties into living heritage through the use of the space in the memories and stories it creates. Today, the site has trail features and has been repurposed in order for people who visit to feel the same connection of the land that the various owners and original occupants had experienced.
More information about the project can be found through the Meewasin Valley Authority.
