​Noreen Varner-Riley and her husband looked through the glass on the door of a white house, pointing at the furniture inside, then walked around the property one more time. 

They drove about an hour from their home near Windsor to Oyster Pond on the Eastern Shore, all to visit a small provincial museum that they can’t go into.

The white house with green accents was her grandmother’s childhood home before it was made into the Fisherman’s Life Museum. The museum kept many of the items her ancestors used on a daily basis to show what life looked like for ordinary Nova Scotians who lived off the ocean. 

The Fisherman’s Life Museum was one of several museums and visitor information centres the province announced it was closing early this week.

“It’s a piece of history that I feel it’s a shame that is going away,” she said. 

Varner-Riley was there with around 50 other people who gathered on Saturday to support the museum and oppose the province’s decision to close it. 

The Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage said in a statement that it considered different factors in its decision to close the sites, including attendance and changing visitor expectations. The 12 sites selected attract less than 3 per cent of the museums’ 500,000 annual visitors. 

Varner-Riley said it isn’t fair to compare attendance at small, rural museums with those in Halifax or larger towns. She said museums like this mean a lot to the local communities, and bring tourism to the area.

This house was built in 1857 by fisherman James Myers. He then passed down the house to his son, his wife, and their 13 daughters. 

Varner-Riley said she visits the museum to feel closer to her mother, who was also drawn to the home because it connected her to her own mother, Rita, who was one of the 13 sisters who once lived there. 

Varner-Riley remembers all the stories of their childhood with warmth. 

When she found out the museum was closing, she said she cried. The pain grew when she noticed that the Facebook page and website for the museum also disappeared, which she says is erasing their history. 

“My mother would have been just so upset. Her and my dad spent every chance they could traveling here to visit it and walk the grounds,” she said. 

Matthew Hughson, a former employee of the museum since 2018, said he is also concerned about the lack of information about what will happen to the museum next. 

“The biggest question mark for me is what happens to these sites. There’s a lot of ambiguous language when it has been shared and there’s a lot of concern and a lot of anger in communities across Nova Scotia, including this one,” he said. 

Amanda Dyke, another museum employee of almost 10 years, said she knows there’s always the option of a community group taking over the museum, but that comes with its own challenges, which is why she hopes the province reverses the decision instead. 

“They’ve cut funding to community museums as well. So that’s a big ask to try and get someone else to take it on,” said Dyke. 

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