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Summer 2020 Issue

The quarterly newsletter from Study Canada K-12
US. Dept. of Education Title VI National Resource Center on Canada 
In this Issue
Overview of Black Canadian History
Nova Scotia and Africville Black History
Viola Desmond and the $10 bill
Black Settlement in the Canadian West
Listen Up!
Looking Back and Looking Forward

You made it. The end of a year unlike any other in teaching - and parenting. I hope you’ve heard the resounding message from parents around the country: teaching is hard/ teachers are valuable/teachers should be paid so much more. Parents got an inside glimpse at what you do every day and they see how hard you work. 

 

We at Study Canada K-12 have been sharing daily resources on Twitter and Facebook - please follow us - and are hoping to bring you some excellent original on-line content in the Fall. We also will be sending out a survey,  along with other Title VI centers, about what you will need next year and how we can help you in this changing educational world.

 

Many educators have also been challenged in recent weeks to use their summer to dig into anti-racist and “unsettling” their curriculum and themselves. In that spirit, this summer we offer a selection of resources on Black Canadians and Black Canadian History. As Teaching Tolerance recently said:

“Teachers can teach hard history—and the present—and teach the ways that marginalized groups have always worked to honor their dignity and humanity. Teaching and exposing the realities of what is happening now may be very difficult for students, so balancing teaching the “hard stuff” with action or activism helps. Teachers can teach lessons that expose oppression and also teach lessons that are rooted in action, activism, care, joy and healing". 
 

Overview of Black Canadian History
Wondering where to start with Black Canadian History? Check out these resources:          
  • Another great set of resources on Teaching African Canadians from Natasha Henry, an educator who grew up without African Canadian History in her Canadian classroom and was determined to change that. 

From the Nova Scotia Archives :
The Sankofa symbol (above)is an adinkra symbol signifying the importance of learning from the past, along with the expression “return and get it” to emphasize that African Nova Scotia history is our shared history. Nova Scotia has been home to people of African descent for over 400 years, centuries that saw struggle, achievement and the formation of communities that thrive to this day. Nova Scotia Archives are here.


The historical Black community Africville near Halifax, NS has a long, complex, and ultimately painful history documented in this Story Map.

The CBC Digital Archives for Teachers has a fascinating round-up of articles charting the history of Africville, including an eye-opening and jaw-dropping 1962 video segment in which a reporter walks the streets asking people if they think racism is a problem in Halifax.

The Study Canada Virtual Field Trip to Nova Scotia has marked important sites of Black History in Nova Scotia throughout the province as well. 

Viola Desmond and the $10 Bill

Viola Desmond played a seminal role in Canada's civil rights movement when, on Nov. 8, 1946, she went to see a movie at the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., while her car was getting fixed.

Desmond, 32, was dragged out of the theatre by police and jailed for defiantly sitting in the "whites only" section of the film house. At the time, Black people could only sit in the balcony.

Her ensuing legal fight against that injustice helped end segregation in Nova Scotia. In 2010, she was posthumously awarded an apology and a pardon.  

In 2016, Viola Desmond was chosen to replace Canada's first Prime Minister on this vertically designed $10 bill: how the Black Canadian woman fought racist policies 

Bank of Canada's interactive breakdown of the design choices. 

The design even won an international award for design in 2019 as World's Best Banknote.

Now, can the USA think about a $1 coin and ditching the penny? 

 
Black Settlement and the Canadian West
John Ware (pictured above) was the first Black cowboy in Canada, learn all about him here and listen to the podcast too. 

From the Collections Canada site of Black Alberta history:
"Between 1908 and 1911, approximately 1,000 Black settlers arrived in Alberta from Oklahoma in response to advertising campaigns initiated by the Canadian Immigration Department. Many of them had been forced to sell their land because of racially discriminatory policies" and thought Canada would be more tolerant. Unfortunately, white settler farmers in Alberta and Saskatchewan were quickly circulating petitions looking to stop further Black Immigration. 

We are the Roots: Black Settlers and their Experiences of Discrimination on the Canadian Prairies tells the story of a wave of African American immigrants who moved to Alberta and Saskatchewan between 1905-1912 to escape racism and persecution in the United States. Taking advantage of Canada’s offer of 160 acres of land for a $10 fee, 1000-1500 individuals moved to the Prairies and helped develop several settlements throughout the provinces. Through the stories of 19 descendants of the original settlers, We are the Roots focuses on the experiences of discrimination these individuals encountered while living in the rural communities and in Edmonton
. Find the hour documentary here
Listen Up!

Alyssa Gray-Tyghter is an Afro-Indigenous Educator and PH.D candidate in Canada, focused on Equity in Education. She shares great insights and resources via her Instagram account which you can follow @alyssagtyghter.

She also co-hosts an excellent podcast called Teachers Like Us: “Join middle school teachers Alyssa and Andre as they explore the ins and outs of today's education system through the lens of equity and social justice.” They are on Season Two and it's an excellent listen as we head back to some form of school next year. 

 

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K-12 Study Canada is part of the Title VI federally-funded National Resource Center with the Center for Canadian-American Studies at Western Washington University and aims to enhance and strengthen a better understanding of the Canada and the Canada-U.S. relationship through teaching and education.
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