Preserving the history of the Black experience is important to help combat inaccuracies in the dominant colonial historical narrative of Manitoba.
In honor of Black History Month, and sharing the Black narrative, the University of Winnipeg Archives is presenting Archiving the Black Canadian Experience: Education, Innovation, Preservation, a panel discussion on Tuesday, February 3 from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in the UWinnipeg Archives Reading Room, and an accompanying exhibition that will run from February 1 to April 30 also in the Archives Reading Room.
Archives have traditionally erased marginalized communities from colonial histories and have excluded their stories in the nation-building myth of white, heteronormative, patriarchal progress and success.
Brett Lougheed
The exhibition will feature records from UWinnipeg Archives including material from the Congress of Black Women of Manitoba, the Frances Atwell Collection from the Western Canada Pictorial Index, and the University yearbooks.
“Archives have traditionally erased marginalized communities from colonial histories and have excluded their stories in the nation-building myth of white, heteronormative, patriarchal progress and success,” shared Brett Lougheed, University Winnipeg Archivist/Digital Curator. “This exhibit and talk will help fill in the gaps in our documentary heritage with the stories of Black communities by preserving their cultural heritage and making it accessible to a wider audience.”
The three speakers for the panel discussion include Nadia Thompson (Black History Manitoba), Judy Williams (Black Canadian Experience Centre) and Gabriel Bell-Gam (Bell-Gam Digital Cultural Heritage Center), followed by a Q & A.
On the afternoon of the talk, there will be an additional display of objects collected by Williams in her efforts to create the Black Canadian Experience Centre, a museum and archives in Winnipeg dedicated to Black history.
These items will include journals, photos, bibles, and other documents as well as several objects and artifacts all relating to Black history in Manitoba.
This event is made possible thanks to the support of the University of Winnipeg Library and the Centre for Research in Cultural Studies (CRiCS).
