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The UNESCO Slave Route Project: Itineraries of African-Canadian memory

Former Governor General Michaëlle Jean shares a moment with Dr. Afua Cooper (right) and her daughter Habiba Diallo (centre) at the Harriet Tubman Institute event on August 27, 2011.

By

Karolyn Smardz Frost

Black heritage

Published Date:10 Nov 2011

Photo: Former Governor General Michaëlle Jean shares a moment with Dr. Afua Cooper (right) and her daughter Habiba Diallo (centre) at the Harriet Tubman Institute event on August 27, 2011.

In honour of the United Nations’ designation of 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent, the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research in the Global Migrations of African Peoples at York University has launched a major initiative to help raise public awareness about Ontario’s and Canada’s rich and deep African-Canadian heritage. The first partner to join in this exciting collaboration – between the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Harriet Tubman Institute and community groups, government agencies and heritage organizations – was the Ontario Heritage Trust.

The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, former Governor General of Canada and now the UNESCO Special Envoy for Haiti, announced the UNESCO Slave Route Project: Itineraries of African Canadian Memory initiative on August 23, 2011 as part of the Harriet Tubman Institute’s summer institute. This was the fourth Institut Interdisciplinaire Virtuel des Hautes Études sur les Esclavages et les Traites (IVHEET), and bore the theme of Slavery, Memory, Citizenship.

Itineraries of African Canadian Memory was launched to identify and designate places evocative of the African-Canadian experience as a UNESCO Itinerary of Memory. The initial focus is on historic sites in Ontario, including those associated with colonial-era slavery, and with the escape of thousands of enslaved African-Americans to Ontario on the fabled Underground Railroad. Eleven African- Canadian heritage sites commemorated by Ontario Heritage Trust provincial plaques were recognized by UNESCO at the International Scientific Committee meeting in Columbia in May 2011.

Later phases of the project will include partnering with institutions, communities and agencies across Canada to designate sites of African-Canadian memory on a national scale, and to link with similar itineraries around the globe.

The project is being developed by Dr. Paul Lovejoy, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History, Distinguished Research Professor at York University, and a longtime member of the UNESCO International Scientific Committee; Underground Railroad-era archaeologist and historian Dr. Karolyn Smardz Frost; and Hilary Dawson, genealogist, historian and heritage professional.

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