BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2023 : THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
At VMF Winter Arts 2022, Doaa Magdy presented “Dynamic Diasporas” , a two part project that narrated BC’s Black history through archival images and a live performance at VMF Winter Arts Hub, in partnership with BC Black History Awareness Society (BCBHAS).
The project focused around telling the story of roughly 800 educated and skilled Black pioneers who came to the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 at the invitation of its governor, Sir James Douglas, leaving behind an increasingly racist and divisive America, including Emma Stark, Grafton Tyler Brown and Rebecca Gibbs, William Allen Jones, and John Craven Jones.
Through visual storytelling and dance, Dynamic Diasporas introduced the public to their stories of determination, achievements, and endurance. It was an opportunity to learn about BC’s Black pioneers, while rebuilding connection and empathy that has been fractured as a result of the past two years of the pandemic.
This year, the focus is on the PRESENT, with Tafui’s exhibition featuring audio, visual and spoken word artists highlighting the creativity of the African and Caribbean diaspora. In doing so, they offer a unique perspective on the power of being “Present” and its ability to shape our understanding of the world. Present is a gift that is right here and now.
In commemoration of Black History Month, and as part of PRESENT, on Thursday, Feb 23, Periodt: Black Queer Poetry Slam will bring Black queer poets to the stage to amplify, celebrate and illuminate the unique intersections that Black-Indigi-Queer folks bring to the community. The event will feature a special performance by poet, actor, and performing artist, Staceyann Chin.
Curated by Tafui, PRESENT features light-poetry art collaboration at the Winter Arts Hub by Natasha Cunningham and Nya Lewis, inspired by Naila Keleta-Mae’s poem “A Gap”, and laser light animations by Franco E. at Bentall Centre.
In celebration of Black History Month, learn more about BC’s Black pioneers in this article by the BC Black History Awareness Society.
Article written by Fran Morrison, BC Black History Awareness Society
Black History Month 2023 is a great jumping off point to learn more about the diversity of stories of Black people in Canada. Many people have heard stories of how formerly enslaved people used the Underground Railroad to escape cruel bondage. They assume that’s the route by which all Black Canadians historically arrived. In reality, that is only part of the story.
In British Columbia, the narrative is quite different. In 1858, leaving behind an increasingly racist and divisive America, some 800 educated and skilled Black men and women came to the Colony of Vancouver Island at the invitation of its Governor, Sir James Douglas. The newcomers were skilled bakers, business owners, carpenters, masons, tailors, teachers; they became property owners, entrepreneurs, politicians, and achieved many “firsts”.
Carpenters by trade, Charles Alexander (1824-1913) and Fielding Spotts (circa 1828-1902) assisted in building the first school in South Saanich in 1862 and became school trustees. At the same time Alexander and Spotts were involved in the establishment of the original Shady Creek Church, now Central Saanich United Church.
As well as the Alexander and Spotts families, here is an illustrative selection of other first settlers.
Grafton Tyler Brown
Grafton Tyler Brown painted landscapes of the Greater Victoria area and BC’s Mainland. He is considered the first professional Black artist on the Pacific West/Northwest. In June 1883, he was the first to hold an art exhibition in Victoria.
John Sullivan Deas. A tinsmith by trade, Deas built the first commercial salmon cannery on the Fraser River and became the leading canner in the 1870's. Deas Island, where the cannery was located, still bears his name.
Mifflin Gibbs, the de facto leader of Vancouver Island pioneer Black community, was the first Black to be elected and serve on Victoria City Council. He was a Councillor from 1866 to 1869, representing the James Bay Ward. While on council, Gibbs chaired the council’s ways and means committee and from time-to-time acted as Deputy Mayor. Gibbs returned to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1870, passed the bar exam, became a lawyer. Three years later, he was elected as a city judge in Little Rock, the first Black judge elected in the United States.
Rebecca Gibbs, Mifflin Gibbs sister-in-law, worked as a laundress, nurse, and became the owner of property on Fort Street, Victoria. She is also one of Canada’s first Black poets; three of her poems were published in the Cariboo Sentinel while she lived and worked in Barkerville.
William Allen Jones and John Craven Jones. William, the elder brother, studied dentistry at Oberlin College and then settled in the BC gold rush town of Barkerville. He became the first dentist to be granted a licence under the provincial dental laws (1886). John Craven Jones was the first Black teacher in the province and first teacher on Salt Spring Island (circa 1859 to 1875).
Emma Stark was four years old when she arrived in BC in 1858 with her family. One of John Craven Jones students, Emma Stark started teaching in September 1874 at the Cranberry-Cedar School located near Nanaimo. She is the first Black teacher on Vancouver Island.
The stories of these men and women are not well-known, largely ignored in our history books and education curriculums. The BC Black History Awareness Society (BCBHAS) ensures these stories have their rightful place in the history of Canada.
The Black pioneers were part of the fabric of BC from its early days. We say, “Our Roots Run Deep.” Since its formation in 1994, BCBHAS has daylighted these first stories of determination, achievements and endurance, and continues to recognize and celebrate the past, present and future contributions and achievements of Black people to British Columbia and to advance the knowledge, preservation, and displaying of items of historical significance concerning Black British Columbians to increase understanding and awareness, promote diversity, overcome stereotypes and combat racism.
Anyone can learn more about BC’s unique Black history by exploring our website and its extensive Learning Centre. BCBHAS has also created a bilingual online exhibit on the Black pioneers hosted by Digital Museums Canada.
BCBHAS recently partnered with the Royal BC Museum to prepare a physical exhibit called “Hope Meets Action: Echoes through the Black Continuum” Some parts of this exhibit can be viewed online here. The exhibit was housed at the Museum for six months and we now hope to transform this into a travelling exhibit. It can be viewed at the downtown Greater Victoria Public Library until February 28th. Written, told and designed by Black voices, the exhibit reclaims and retells the complicated history of stolen people on stolen land, and how the contributions of Black leaders echo across the centuries into the present.
The accounts of BC Black pioneers provide a perspective that breaks the stereotyping of people of African heritage as “merely” formerly enslaved. Telling their stories is just part of what we do. We also see the present as history.
BCBHAS is a sponsor of the African Ancestry Project, which has created an exciting report, "Worlds Within: Diverse Histories, Identities, and Experiences of Black People of African Ancestry in British Columbia" that documents all the routes by which the Black population arrived in BC and documents the amazing diversity of the Black diaspora.
