{"id":24794,"date":"2019-09-27T15:32:38","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T19:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24794"},"modified":"2019-10-03T19:11:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T23:11:51","slug":"swift-bold-auroras-continuing-relationship-with-queens-york-rangers-subject-of-film-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/swift-bold-auroras-continuing-relationship-with-queens-york-rangers-subject-of-film-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Swift & Bold: Relationship with Queen\u2019s York Rangers subject of film, exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They picked up their pens in a form of protest, scrawling\ntheir names on their rations rather than eating them on the journey home, a jab\nat the bland and unvaried diet they had to choke down while in a conflict zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It might have been a relatively benign form of protest\nwhen the soldiers essentially autographed a biscuit of hardtack in 1885, but\nnow, nearly 135 years later, it\u2019s an evocative piece of history that is helping\nto tell a much larger \u2013 and ongoing \u2013 story in Swift & Bold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift & Bold, an initiative of the Aurora Museum of\nArchives, is the name of a new exhibition charting Aurora\u2019s storied history\nwith the Queen\u2019s York Rangers Regiment and a documentary of the same name, both\nof which will premiere this Saturday night, September 28, at the Church Street\nSchool. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Museum & Archives has been working on\nSwift & Bold for several seasons, brainstorming the idea of a two-pronged\napproach to celebrate Aurora\u2019s enduring relationship with the Rangers to\ncoincide with the renovation and re-opening of their one-time Aurora home, the\nhistoric Aurora Armoury, as the new campus of Niagara College\u2019s Canadian Food\n& Wine Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Museum, it was a chance to revisit old, perhaps\nforgotten, local history as a new chapter begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis really is a comprehensive project,\u201d says Michelle\nJohnson of the Aurora Museum and Archives. \u201cThe exhibition takes a deep dive\ninto the details of the origin of the regiment through to the current day. The\ndocumentary is as comprehensive in scope, interspersed with family connections\nto Aurora, which brings the personal touch into it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe also wanted to show (viewers and museum-goers) that\nthe Queen\u2019s York Rangers are still here,\u201d adds curator Shawna White, comparing\nthe Regiment\u2019s presence when they were at the historic Armoury abutting Town\nPark to the current Lt. Gov. John Graves Simcoe Armoury on Industrial Parkway\nSouth. \u201cThey used to be a lot more visible in the community, especially after\nWorld War Two when they would drive their tanks down Mosley (to and from the\nArmoury) and people were a little ticked off with the damage that got done to roads.\nThey were more visible with the cadets that were parading in the park but they\nare a little bit hidden away now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are still here, they have been here in August since\n1874, and that is a huge connection. It is bringing that back so the community\nis aware and they can celebrate with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community may have had a sneak peek of coming\nattractions in recent months as the Museum, and filmmakers Mountain Goat, took\nover various locations around York Region for historic re-enactments that\nfeature in the documentary, including Shepherd\u2019s Bush Conservation Area here in\nAurora, and the recreated First World War trench, which is now on display at\nthe Georgina Military Museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping guide the process \u2013 as well as secure some rarely\nseen artefacts from other museums for Swift & Bold \u2013 has been Jeremy Hood,\nwho comes to the Aurora Museum & Archives from the Queen\u2019s York Rangers\u2019\nRegimental Museum at Fort York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have a really significant collection and it felt\nlike a really good opportunity to dive in and bring some really fascinating\nstories to life,\u201d says Mr. Hood. \u201cEvery time I am in the archive at Fort York\nI\u2019m discovering new stories and a lot of stories that do relate directly back\nto Aurora because so many of the Battalion\u2019s activities took place here, even\nbefore the Armoury was established in 1874. In 1812, for example, a lot of the\nmilitia for the First York Militia was drawn from this area, all up and down\nYonge Street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Hood\u2019s efforts have also helped the Aurora Museum\n& Archives achieve a long-held dream, at least temporarily, by bringing an\nimportant piece of local history out from the shadows: a bugle presented to the\nRegiment very publicly in Aurora following the Fenian Raids in the late 1800s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was speechless about the breadth of the Queen\u2019s York\nRangers, their history and how far back it went,\u201d said Ms. Johnson. \u201cJust\nseeing all the stories, the history laid out and understanding the\ncharacteristics that these individual soldiers must have had to go into\nconflicts, enlist, and this [has allowed me to gain even more of] an incredible\namount of respect for the Regiment as a whole and just everybody that has been\na part of it through time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Ms. White: \u201cAurora has a rich history I think a lot\nof people now might not necessarily be aware of. This is just another way to\nillustrate that and say, \u2018Wow, this is a really cool place and there is a lot\ngoing on here,\u2019 just bringing that back to the forefront for people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not just a legacy piece, but an ongoing\nnarrative,\u201d notes Ms. Johnson.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swift & Bold: The Queen\u2019s York Rangers launches at\nthe Aurora Museum & Archives (22 Church Street) this Saturday, September\n28, from 7 \u2013 9 p.m. Invitation to the documentary premiere and exhibition\nopening is free, but RSVP to swhite@aurora.ca.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir They picked up their pens in a form of protest, scrawling their names on their rations rather than eating them on the journey home, a jab at the bland and unvaried diet they had to choke down while in a conflict zone. It might have been a relatively benign form of protest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-26-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6rU","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-20 10:27:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}