In the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) the Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) is working to highlight documentary heritage that reflects Black Canadian experiences and histories through its Memory of the World program. Its aim is to recognize, safeguard and promote access to documentary heritage of national significance.
Four archival collections that have been added to the Canada Memory of the World Register provide insight into the experiences of Black communities in Canada through the life and work of:
- Viola Desmond, an African Nova Scotian businesswoman who undertook the first known legal challenge by a Black woman in Canada against racial segregation
- Alvin D. McCurdy, a historian who independently took on the task of preserving the heritage of Black communities in Southern Ontario
- Anderson Ruffin Abbott, who was the first Canadian-born Black physician
- Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who was the first Black woman in North America to publish a newspaper and one of the first women journalists in Canada
The significance of these collections was discussed in Archives & Things podcast (S2 E19) with Melissa J Nelson (Archivist at the Archives of Ontario and Founder of Black Memory Collective, a community of Black archivists, memory workers, and researchers):
“Alvin D. McCurdy was a Black community member who lived in the region of Amherstburg and he recognized that archival institutions were not collecting the records or the experiences of his community members” said Cody Groat, Chair of the Canadian Advisory Committee for Memory of the World. The McCurdy fonds, now housed at the Archives of Ontario, is one of the pre-eminent collections for understanding the histories and stories of Amherstburg’s role in the Underground Railroad and Black Canadians’ journeys and contributions to Canada at large.
The Anderson Ruffin Abbott archive “traces his experiences as a Black doctor in this period of diverse cultural change (…) he was a doctor in both Canada and in the United States during the Civil war (…) Anderson, similar to Alvin D. McCurdy recognized that there wasn’t really much government or community effort to trace the experiences of Black Canadians and so he kept long lists that had all the last names of Black families in Toronto, for instance” shared Cody.
The records of Mary Ann Shadd Cary were added to the Canada Memory of the World Register in 2023, which marks the 200th anniversary of her birth. The life of work of Mary Ann Shadd Cary as an educator, author, feminist, abolitionist and founder of The Provincial Freeman was recently celebrated at an event titled From Grit to Glory, organized by Toronto History Museums and discussed on CBC Ideas.
When your childhood home is a stop on the underground railroad you can be sure that your life will lead others toward a path towards liberation. In a world that wished for Black people to be silent Mary Ann Shadd Cary shouted the loudest - silencing every voice that spoke against Black freedom and breaking through barriers that thought to hold us. Mary Ann Shadd Cary made abolition a non-negotiable, turned newspaper into microphone, building an entire house every time she was denied a seat at the table. Mary Ann Shadd Cary was a teacher, but the greatest lesson she every taught was that as long as there is injustice we must always speak out. For as long as people are being silenced we must always be loud, and for as long as we are Black we should always be proud. – MayaSpoken (Ottawa based spoken word poet)
Are you aware of other collections that document the lives and experiences of Black Canadians? Please contact us for more information on how to nominate a collection held by an individual, private or public institution, organization or community.
For more information: https://en.ccunesco.ca/our-priorities/memory-of-the-world
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Black Canadians
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Heritage
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History