The Brown Bag Lecture Series is held every Tuesday at lunchtime (noon to 1 pm) from September to April. Each week a guest lecturer speaks about a subject in their area of expertise. Topics include local history, travel, culture, and natural history. Admission is by suggested donation of $2 per adult and $1 for children.
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Interested in sharing your passion or experiences in a Brown Bag Lecture? Contact us to find out how: 250-490-2454 or email.
Upcoming Events
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Donna M. Henningson couldn't get it out of her head: "How do we get into these conflicts? And how do we get out?" A deep dive into the works of thought leaders, and stories from around the world, led to her new book "White Space, Gray Areas, & Black Swans: stories of getting along (or not)." Think creative non-fiction with a twist of fantasy. Get ready to challenge your perspective.
Donna is a former Penticton Herald reporter, dragonboat coach, and vocal ensemble alto. She was a senior high school English teacher in China during COVID, and continues to teach young people locally. Singing remains a passion, as does working with non-profit organizations.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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The “rags to riches” story of Cornelius O’Keefe, who arrived in the Colony of British Columbia in 1862 with nothing and, through hard work and perseverance, built a cattle empire in the North Okanagan. He had three wives who bore him 16 children and his original ranch buildings remain intact on the ranch, which is a heritage site.
Ken Mather has been researching and writing about Western Canadian history since 1973 and has written eight books on BC history.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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(From the Heritage Canada website on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation)
Each year, September 30 marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.
What can you do?
Wear orange - Both the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day take place on September 30.Orange Shirt Day is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
Visit the Syilx Indian Residential School Monument
The Syilx Indian Residential School Monument is dedicated to all Syilx (Okanagan) people who went to Indian Residential School, especially to those who did not make it home.
It is located next to the kł cp̓əlk̓ stim̓ Hatchery in Penticton. The location was chosen as it is where the train and the cattle trucks came to gather our children to take them away to Indian Residential School. For more details please visit: https://syilx.org/wellness/indian-residential-school/syilx-indian-residential-school-monument/The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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We’re all Monday morning quarterbacks, aren’t we? As times goes on, we reassess, with newer information and clearer ideas, all that went before. Jon Bartlett’s book hopes to reassess three government officials (Trutch, Bowser and Helmcken) who, he says, we should now downgrade.
Jon Bartlett, who’s attended and presented many Brown Bags, is a BC historian, whose interest in BC cultural matters has generated seven CDs of traditional song and a passel of books.The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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The Penticton Hospital Auxiliary has changed greatly from its starting days to present. Barb Setterfield will share how the auxiliary has progressed through the years, looking at the history of health care in Penticton, and what the auxiliary has done for our hospital and community.
Barb Setterfield has been a member of the Penticton Hospital Auxiliary for over 30 years.
Now that she is retired, she can give more time to the Auxiliary benefiting our hospital. It seems we all need our hospital, including Barb, when she broke her ankle this past Easter weekend.The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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Stone, as a common material in the archaeological record, is a useful way to try to understand the technology of toolmaking and use, systems of trade and exchange, migration and aesthetics. This talk will focus on the stone tools or lithics of the Okanagan highlighting some geological discoveries made this past summer and special objects from local museums including the Penticton Musuem and Archives collection.
Dr. Flannery Surette is an archaeologist and works in the department of Anthropology at Okanagan College. She specializes in systems of technology including stone tools from the Okanagan Valley, textiles from northern Peru and ostrich eggshell beads from eastern and southern Africa and their relationship to trade and exchange, communities of practice and the creation of social identities.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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1914—1918. Canadians and Newfoundlanders in “The Great War”. 60,000 killed, 172,000 wounded, many returning home, broken in body and mind. More than a century later as we once again approach November 11th, what would these silent voices want us to do? And what would they want us to remember?
Cultural anthropologist Dr. Pamela Peck is an author, lecturer, composer and playwright whose professional interest is education for a global perspective, and the application of social science knowledge to addressing the practical concerns of everyday life. After an academic career at UBC, Pamela has lectured around the world, including more than 350 lectures on 75 cruises.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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Robert will continue sharing some of the findings of his research into the names on the Penticton Cenotaph. He will describe how Penticton reacted to the demands of the war, especially as the first local casualties became known. Robert’s talk will also include brief biographies of some of the names listed on the Cenotaph.
Robert and his wife moved to Penticton from Hong Kong six years ago and he has since been active not only in the research he will be talking about, but also as a director of the SS Sicamous Marine Heritage Society. He is a retired professional accountant, holds an MPhil degree in history, and has published six books as well as many articles in academic journals.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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Please join us at a Remembrance Day ceremony. There are typically two. One takes place at the Cenotaph in Veterans’ Memorial Park, Main Street and Lakeshore Drive E. The other takes place indoors at the Trade and Convention Centre at 273 Power Street.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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Invasive trees are an ever-increasing threat to our ecosystems. They grow rapidly, produce an abundance of seeds and outcompete native plants. This can result in loss of wildlife habitat, reduced biodiversity, altered hydrology, soil degradation, altered fire cycles, and loss of traditional food and medicinal plants. Invasive trees can also be the preferred host for invasive insects. This presentation will provide an overview of the problem and highlight a new project that is raising awareness and helping to address this challenging situation in the South Okanagan.
Lisa Scott was born and raised in the Okanagan Valley. She is a Professional Biologist and has worked as a consultant in the fields of invasive species management, environmental assessments and conservation planning for 29 years. Lisa has been the Executive Director of the Okanagan and Similkameen Invasive Species Society since its inception in 1996.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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Medical Arts Health Research and UBCO are using a Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology to pilot Memory Cafes. These are cross sector social experiments searching for ways to build dementia friendly rural BC communities (a World Health Organization mission) and ways to provide community education about the 14 modifiable risk factors associated with dementia. Memory Cafes are arts-based and recreation based community event inviting in all those with cognitive decline and dementia, their caregivers, their families and their community who cares. They feature stories of the lived experience of cognitive decline and dementia, live music, great food, and workshops featuring holistic therapeutic approaches to cognitive decline and dementia.
The Participatory Action Research team that leads each community in organizing a Memory Cafe is: Barb Stewart, Program Manager, DB Foundation for Health Research, Dr. Eric Li, Principal Investigator UBCO, Dr. Donna Benson, Medical Arts Health Research
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca
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A brief overview of the history of the Summerland Research and Development Centre, historical achievements, and changing focuses through time. Current and past research projects, including the legacy apple and cherry breeding programs, pest management, and a renewed focus on climate resiliency.
Jesse MacDonald was raised on a fruit farm in Summerland, BC, where his family first moved in 1919. He has a background in plant pathology and pest management, and returned home when he had an opportunity to work as a biologist at the Summerland Research and Development Centre on a diverse range of scientific initiatives, and includes a role as the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Officer.
Kelly Pagliocchini owns a local fruit farm with her husband in Summerland, where she has lived since 1993. She started her career at the Summerland Research and Development Centre in 2021 as a member of the field crew and now holds the position of Executive Assistant to the Associate Director, where she became fascinated with the history of the Centre and can often be found digging through boxes of historical documents on her breaks.
The Brown Bag Lecture Series is an opportunity to spice up your lunch hour with interesting presentations and discussions on a variety of heritage and culture topics.
Museum Auditorium (785 Main St). Admission is by donation. Suggested donation is $2 for adults, $1 for children. For more information contact: 250-490-2451 or museum@penticton.ca