About
History of the Project
A Black archive – a repository that speaks to the diverse Black Canadian diaspora – does not currently exist in Canada. The material record of Black history and presence in Canada is scattered in disparate collections across the country – whether these be private family collections, or within public institutions or group associations. This dearth of resources poses a longstanding challenge to Black Canadian Studies. These fragmentary, unknown, undiscoverable, incomplete, and/or inadequately catalogued materials create barriers to a richer and fuller understanding of Black history and experience in this country.
Access to relevant materials is further complicated by traditional cataloguing, which is steeped in a colonial logic often reinforcing an anti-Blackness. Black history is buried within white histories – and takes a great deal of sifting and sorting and re-orienting to make it discoverable and accessible. Canadian archives are not classified by race or ethnicity, and so the very structure of the archive erases the lived experiences of Black Canadians from public memory. Communities who might contribute their collections for study are reluctant to do so as they are wary of current archival practices that distance or invalidate their histories.
The Black diaspora is the fourth largest group in Canada, with histories that can be traced back over six centuries. There is a richness of archival materials held by members of the Black community across the country that reflects these deeply entrenched histories. Black histories are connected to diverse communities defined as Black, and to different institutions, movements and areas of life. The Black Archive will connect and preserve these materials, making them accessible for research, education, advocacy, policy and overall illumination of the experiences and contributions of Black peoples in Ontario in a comprehensive way.
This archive rejects the traditional positioning of archival research as the preserve of the elite. Key and unique to our proposed approach is that we envision a Black Archive that will challenge the marginalization of Black history and introduce innovative ways of stewarding Black ephemera by foregrounding community participation in the creation and preservation of narratives expressing Black experiences. It re-imagines the archive as a community hub that is both a repository and a communicator of community knowledge.
SUPPORTERS
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The Foundation for Black Communities (FFBC) Black Ideas Grant (B.I.G.): Bridge and Build Grant 2023-2024
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SUPPORTERS
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Mission of the Project
Cultivating Black Archives is a social act; it is a political act – it is a questioning and reimagining of Black existence and Black history in Canada.
Access to relevant materials is further complicated by traditional cataloguing, which is steeped in a colonial logic often reinforcing anti-Blackness. These fragmentary, unknown, undiscoverable, incomplete, and/or inadequately cataloged materials create barriers to a fuller understanding of Black history and experience in this country and contribute to the ongoing marginalization of Black Canadian history. Archives are often static – the job is to make them living, breathing things. The stories are what get people interested. They draw people to the materials of the archive.
The purpose of the Black Archival Routes and Risings project is to disrupt the elitism and racism embedded in traditional archival practices and ensure that Black communities have access to knowledge about their people and communities.
Vision of the Project
PRESERVE:
The material record of Black history and presence in Canada is scattered in disparate collections across the country – whether these be private family collections, or within public institutions or group associations. We envision a Black Archive that will foreground community participation in the creation and preservation of Black histories and serve as both a repository and a communicator of community knowledge.
RESEARCH:
Ensure Black faculty have access to materials to grow Black Studies.
Provide researchers with opportunities to curate materials to ensure wide dissemination and varied outreach.
LEARNING:
Students at TMU, with the support of faculty, have been calling for increased representation of Black Studies in the academy. Archival collections such as the one envisioned here are a means of meeting this demand, engaging students, and contributing to the vibrant growth of Black Studies.
PRESERVE
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RESEARCH
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LEARNING
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PRESERVE + RESEARCH + LEARNING +
Who We Are
Dr. Mélanie Knight
Dr. Mélanie Knight is an Associate Professor of Black Studies in the Department of Sociology and currently interim Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). She was Advisor to the Dean of Arts (Dr. Pam Sugiman) on Blackness and Black Diasporic Education (2020-2024).
Dr. Knight’s research focuses on Black activism/organizing, Black collective economic initiatives and Black women business owners. She currently holds an Insight Grant (sole PI) entitled “Forgotten histories: Black community organizations in Toronto and the rise of the Black movement in Canada (1890-1990)” (2023-2026) where she examines Black community organizations that emerged in the late 19th century to the mid-twentieth, their mandates/visions, programming and struggles to remain viable. Other works include, a co-edited a book with Dr. Talia Esnard entitled “Mothering and Entrepreneurship: Global Perspectives, Identities and Complexities", peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Critical Race and Whiteness Studies, Gender, Work & Organization and the Canadian Journal of History.
She is currently working, in collaboration with Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy, on a Black Archives project geared to preserving and digitizing archival documents from various Black community organizations and personal collections, including the Jamaican-Canadian Association (funded by B.I.G Ideas Grant). She has served as president of the Black Canadian Studies Association (2021-2022), a member of the Canadian Sociological Association’s Black Caucus, collaborated on projects with the Ontario Black History Society and the Rella Braithwaite Foundation. She has also worked on a number of initiatives aimed at addressing anti-Black racism within and outside of the university.
Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy
Dr. Anne-Marie Lee-Loy began her tenure as the Associate Dean of Undergraduate studies in September 2022. She has a strong track record of leadership within the Faculty of Arts and TMU community, as a former Chair and Undergraduate Program Director of the Department of English. She was also instrumental in the development of the Faculty of Arts Double Major proposal, as well as the Black Studies Minor.
Anne-Marie is also strongly dedicated to students and student experience and has prioritized the building of a vibrant student culture in her role as Chair of the English Department. She has experience with, and a strong interest in curriculum development and renewal, and enriching student curricular and co-curricular engagement, as well as Periodic Programme Reviews and their impact.
Anne-Marie’s research and teaching interest emerge from her background in postcolonial studies. Her work focuses primarily on questions pertaining to representations of minority diasporic populations in relation to the construction of cultural identities. She has taught a wide range of courses at TMU that have been informed by postcolonial issues and approaches, including immigrant writing, the Canadian short story, Asian literatures and cultures, diasporic modernities and, of course, postcolonial literatures.
Organizational & Personal Archives
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Since 1962, the Jamaican Canadian Association (JCA) has dedicated its time and resources to delivering programs and services to advocate for and improve the well‐being and equity of Jamaican, Caribbean & African‐Canadian communities within the GTA. The organization aims to continue to preserve and document the unique stories of Black Canadians through this project. The funds will enable the digitization of the collection of historical documents held in the Marcus Garvey Resource Room at the JCA.
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In Canada, the first nursing training facility opened in 1874 in Ontario. The first baccalaureate nursing program started in 1919 at the University of British Columbia. However it was only in the 1940s that Canada granted Blacks admission to nursing programs. Ruth Bailey and Gwennyth Barton were the first Black nurses to earn a nursing diploma in Canada from the Grace Maternity School of Nursing in Halifax, graduating in 1948 — almost three-quarters of a century after the first school opened (See Fynn 2011 - Moving Beyond Borders).
The Black Archival Routes and Risings project strives to continue to interview and document the history of Black health workers in Ontario and beyond.
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There is little research on Black foundry workers in Canada. Foundry work consists of making foundry moulds and cores by hand or machine, working with cast molten metal, and operating furnaces. Dean, Dr. Pam Sugiman, interviewed 12 Black foundry workers. These interviews shed light on experiences of settlement, labour-intensive work and worker’s connection to community.
(donation by Dr. Pam Sugiman)
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The first President of the JCA (1962-1966 & 1984-1989), Roy Williams, recalls the early days of the association, and the struggles to secure a space of its own, “The numbers of people of colour in Canada at that time were small due to the anti-black immigration policies. So we discovered early in the game that one of our functions was advocacy, speaking out against the discriminatory policies in housing, employment, education etc, and the JCA helped to change laws affecting exclusion in those areas. We needed a hub whereby we could deliver programs and services and so the JCA secured 65 Dawes Road, but it was lost in a mysterious fire. We used borrowed or rented premises for some years.” The Association purchased another property at 1621 Dupont Street and occupied it from 1985-1986, offering social and community services. Williams says that before long the JCA outgrew the property and the search was on again. “We had to adapt our services to cater to a rapidly growing, diverse population, so we sold that property and bought the current building at 995 Arrow Road, renovated it and opened for business in 1999.”
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Kay Blair (1954 – 2016) was the executive director of Community MicroSkills Development Centre, a community agency serving immigrants, low-income women and youth since 1988. Kay made a profound impact on the community in the last two decades and her dynamic, entrepreneurial and innovative leadership made a lasting impression in the GTA. She launched the first Women’s Enterprise & Resource Centre and the first Women’s Technology Institute in Ontario, both of which focus on immigrant and racialized women, served as United Way Toronto Campaign Cabinet for Member Agencies chair and was the lead for a partnership of community agencies to address the concerns of immigrant racialized youth which led to the creation of Dixon Youth Centre. Kay was an Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) president for two terms, a member of the Laidlaw Foundation, Peel Police Race Relations Committee and Centennial College’s board of directors. She was a chair of the William Osler Health System’s board of directors, and in 2014 Osler’s Community Service Award was renamed to honour Kay. She frequently served as a consultant to government and community groups on issues of access, equity and organizational and community development. Among her awards are Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award – Trailblazer (2004); the YWCA Woman of Distinction – Community Leadership (2006); the Premier’s Award – Community and Social Services (2007); and the Outstanding Achievement Award (2011) from Jamaica Canadian Association. Kay passed away in 2016 at the age of 62.