Shirley Peruniak 1926-2020

Jeff Green | Feb 05, 2020

Shirley Peruniak, who chronicled the history of the former Oso township, received the Order of Ontario for her work at Quetico Provincial Park, and spent her life exploring the world around her, has died at the age of 93.

Shirley spent her early childhood in Sharbot Lake, and left for Perth when she was 9, after having what would be a lifelong interest in the natural world sparked by her first school principal at Sharbot Lake Public School.

She visited Sharbot Lake often as a teenager because her grandmother lived in the hamlet. Her parents, the Walroths, eventually returned to Sharbot Lake and ran a cottage rental business on the east basin of the lake, just off Road 38. Shirley and her husband moved to Kenora, where he taught. When road access between Kenora and Quetico Park was established in 1956, Shirley made her way to Quetico, a place that became a second home for her.

She was eventually hired as the park naturalist in 1974 and although she officially retired from that post in 1993, she kept visiting Quetico and working as a volunteer until just a few years ago.

At the park, she archived written material about the park, and also collected the stories of the people who made up the history of the park. She began collecting oral histories.

“I talked to trappers, park rangers, poachers, and elders from the Lac LaCroix First Nations, anyone who knew about where the park had come from,” Shirley said in an interview with the News in 2010 on the occasion of her investiture into the Order of Ontario. “I remember getting children to interview their grandparents, who only spoke Ojibway, and having them translate for me.”

All of the interviews were transcribed and materials were stored away in filing cabinets. This part of Shirley’s personality is familiar to people in Sharbot Lake, where she did the same thing for the Oso Historical Society, starting in 1988.

In an article that was published by Quetico Park when she was named to the Order of Ontario, Jon Nelson summed up Shirley’s impact at the park: “In her quiet, unassuming way, she expanded and altered the scope of the naturalist program in Quetico Park. She then wrote a book that added a human dimension to the wilderness for which Quetico Park is known.

Through her decades of devotion to Quetico, Shirley has become Quetico’s most respected Elder. Shirley is highly respected both for what she has accomplished and how she has accomplished it.”

She established her winter home in Sharbot Lake in 1988, in an oasis like house, set just far enough back and below road 38 to muffle the noise from traffic, with a sweeping view of the lake. When the snowbirds were getting ready to fly south for the winter, Shirley would be returning to Sharbot Lake from Quetico, to resume her volunteer job at Sharbot Lake Public School, running the lunch program. She also introduced the younger students as the school to the wildflowers that grow locally, including a visit to the unique wildflower garden she had established in front of her home.

In Sharbot Lake, she established many long-term friendships, based on her wide breadth of interests in preserving local history, flora and fauna, current events and literature. A creature of habit, she walked to the store every day to pick up four newspapers, a ritual that she maintained until she took sick just a couple of weeks ago.

One of her closest friends was Sandra Moase, who worked for many years at the Sharbot Lake Family Health Team. Sandra was introduced to Shirley by Dr. Peter Bell, who shared Shirley’s enthusiasm for both birdwatching and preserving heritage artifacts.

“Peter said that we should meet, and they both got me interested in birdwatching, and so many other things,” Sandra recalled when contacted this week.

“She was a wonderful friend; we went hiking, exploring, snowshoeing, canoeing. She was always inviting me to see something interesting in the area. As she got older and needed a bit of help, I stepped in.

“She maintained friendships with people all around the world, keeping in touch by writing letters. Her grandson had two dozen people to call when she died, from Ireland, Newfoundland, Thunder Bay, Atikokan, all over,” said Sandra.