Blake Ellis/The Independent

Anna Dunlop remembers walking with her mother, Jennifer Kelly, and her aunts through the streets of Petrolia when the family would visit during her childhood.

Her mother’s hometown, she said, was beautiful with its Victorian architecture with many places appearing haunted.

But it was a trip to the Lambton County Archives in 2023, which sparked Dunlop’s interest of telling Petrolia’s history from the perspective of women. It is view is often missing from the history books, said Dunlop.

“In a lot of cases, we don’t know what they were thinking or what they felt,” said Dunlop, a dance artist based in Canada and the United Kingdom, about the women who shaped Petrolia.

“There are noticeable gaps in the historical text,” said Dunlop. Women often organized the social life of the community. Not telling that part of the story, she says, is a huge loss.

The mainstream historical story seems to view women as “just the wives and they were just at home,” she added.

So Dunlop is developing a film, The Mud and the Sinfulness of Others, with a team that includes a cinematographer, voice actors and an archivist. It will tell the story through dance and centre on the period between 1860 and 1896. During this period, the mud defined Petrolia, while many were pursued oil.

Dunlop will be hosting a workshop on Saturday, Feb. 21 as part of the Women and Family in Local History Petrolia Heritage Open House at Victoria Hall. While the heritage open house is being held from noon to 4 pm, Dunlop’s workshop will be held from 1 to 3 pm.

The workshop will look much like story time circle. Women are invited to tell a story about women connected to Petrolia.

Each person will be given five to 10 minutes to tell her story. For those who consent, the film team will be making voice recordings of the stories, which will be held at the Lambton Archives. Some of these voices will be mixed into the soundscape of the film.

Dunlop hopes to finish filming Mud and the Sinfulness of Others by the end of February with the editing being completed by May. She hopes to eventually show the film in Petrolia and will be sharing it with the Petrolia Discovery Centre, the Oil Museum of Canada, Lambton County Archives and library.

As for the Petrolia heritage open house, there will be displays from the Lambton County Archives, Oil Museum of Canada, Lambton branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and Petrolia Heritage Committee.