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A new travelling exhibit is exploring 400 years of maritime history to tell the stories of African Nova Scotian seafarers.
The exhibition, titled ‘We and the Sea,’ launched Saturday at the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Birchtown, N.S. Dozens of community members, descendants and dignitaries attended the opening.
The project shines a light on a history that has largely remained absent from historical accounts of the marine industry, said Russell Grosse, the executive director of the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.
“For many years the community has been defined by enslavement, and that enslavement has created a reference point where people are reticent to share their history,” Grosse said.
“Things like this create an opportunity where we can turn that page and show that … through the atrocities of enslavement, there were contributions made to society.”
Andrea Davis, the executive director of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre and an eighth-generation Black Loyalist descendant, called the launch a historic moment.
“This is a human story and this is a story that we’re exposing not to push in anyone’s face, but to have the community recognize that this industry has been around for a very long time,” Davis said.
The project has been in development for four to five years.
Davis said she wants students to remember that “Black history is Canadian history.”
She is encouraging schools from elementary to university to visit the exhibit and learn about figures like Donna Guy. Originally from Shelburne, Guy crafted wooden barrels and casks. She was reportedly the owner of the last privately owned commercial cooper shop in Canada and one of the world’s only female coopers.
Marjorie Turner-Bailey, an Olympian and descendant of Black Loyalists, agreed that the history needs a wider audience.
“Young people have to be taught, I don’t care what colour you are,” said Turner-Bailey. “They have to be taught about people in history. It’s important and it makes us better.”
The exhibit highlights everything from coastal communities like Africville to enslaved Africans who worked in Louisbourg’s fishing stations.
The seafaring project is a joint collaboration between the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia.
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