GUELPH – University of Guelph professor Dr. Marsha Hinds Myrie has put together a traveling exhibit highlighting local Black educators and their contributions to the past, present and future of education in and around Guelph.
“I just started it as, like a personal project. And then when I realized how much I had come across, I was like, ‘Oh no, this is something this community needs to see and know,’” said Hinds Myrie.
“There’s still so much that isn’t written anywhere or documented anywhere and if it is documented, it’s not as easy as a click on a website.”
The exhibit will feature 12 educators, including:
- Alfred Lafferty, the first Black principal of an Ontario public school, who led Guelph County High School, now known as Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute;
- Wilbert Solomon, a high school teacher in Wellesley in the 1900s; and
- Pauline Kanke, a former Waterloo Region District School Board vice principal and current system principal in the Indigenous, Equity and Human Rights Department within Learning Support Services.
“There are a lot of people that still think that when we talk about things like anti-oppressive education, that these things are new, that they’re recent,” said Hinds Myrie.
“And one of the things we wanted to do with this exhibition was to step back into history and connect how the Black community has approached education, developing courses about ourselves, for ourselves, teaching our community in ways that made it safe for them, but also teaching other communities.”
The exhibit features three categories: the groundbreakers, keepers and futures.
“We start with our groundbreakers … these are people who were teaching in the 1800s and early 1900s, and then we bring it right through with what we call the keepers, those individuals who were practicing in the ’80s and in the ’90s, the early 2000s,” she explained.
“And then we have our futures, those young teachers who are taking the mantle and continuing to build on the legacy that was left for them.”
Each educator will have their own plaque featuring a brief description as well as a QR code that will bring visitors to the University of Guelph website with more information on each educator as well as exclusive interviews and articles.
“We’ve done interviews, so some of them, you can hear their voices, their views and their own words,” said Hinds Myrie.
“Some of them, we have written interviews, so you get excerpts from them. And we also have articles on there that tell you more.”
She told the Advertiser she chose educators because of the instrumental role education has and continues to play for Black communities.
“Education is one of those areas that has really offered the opportunity for Black individuals to rebuild themselves and their humanity,” she said.
“And so education has always been very important to our community; libraries, books, information, just being able to participate in the intellectual project has always been important to the Black community.
“And I feel as though that’s an important story to tell as we continue to kind of push against and push beyond some of the stereotypes that still affect and harm the community.”
The exhibit runs Feb. 3 to 7 at the McLaughlin Library at the University of Guelph, Feb. 10 to 14 at the Guelph Public Library downtown, and Feb. 17 to 21 at the Westminister Square branch of the Guelph Public Library.
There will also be a screening of the exhibit’s documentary, What We Deserve, on Feb. 11 at the Guelph Public Library downtown location as well as at the University of Guelph.
For more information on the exhibit and the featured educators, visit uoguelph.ca.
“This exhibit brings it down to a day-to-day level,” said Hinds Myrie.
“It brings it down to, ‘I know this person, I see this person, this person teaches at my kid’s school’ … and so it becomes personal and it becomes real.
“It’s no longer what those people celebrate. It’s what we celebrate.”
