Hello! My name is Vasanthi Pendakur, and I just started working at the museum in September 2014.

As part of my program at Western, I will be working at the museum for the next year as an Education Assistant. I was drawn to this position because of all the new skills I could gain from it. I also have some background in First Nations history from when I worked for a private research company specializing in land claims and rights. This position seemed like the perfect place to combine this knowledge with the interpretation and educational programming skills I could learn.

So what do I do? I help run educational and cultural programming for school groups visiting the museum. This involves a lot of cool activities that include tours of the museum, archaeological and historical activities, and First Nations’ crafts. Currently I’m still learning many of the programs, but I’ve started to run a few by myself. One of the activities I’m involved with is artifact handling. This activity allows students to handle real artifacts from around Ontario, while attempting to guess what they were used for. I’ve also helped with various cultural and archaeological activities.

I’ve found that I enjoy working with the school groups who come to the museum. No matter what happens, I always have great stories from the tours and activities. It’s fun to work with the kids and see how much they know during the tours or what they create during workshops.

If I could say one thing about the museum, I would promote their educational programming. The museum’s tours and activities are a great way for students to learn all about the First Nations and pioneers who inhabited Southern Ontario.

Out of the museum, I am working on a Master’s of Public History at Western University. Aside from school, I love reading, I do embroidery, and I watch a lot of TV.