“I have come full circle to stumble onto some
of the indigenous ideals: Diversity matters. And everything in the universe is
connected—between the forests and the prairies, the land and the water, the sky
and the soil, the spirits and the living, the people and all other creatures.”
Suzanne Simard
Canada
had been presented to them as a place of inclusion, equity and plurality. His
grandparents settled in Chatham, three hours southwest from Toronto. As time went by, they purchased land,
territory that white settlers had stolen from Indigenous people. Katie and John
toiled away everyday to grow crops that would help them pay their mortgage.
His grandparents passed on to Ian a love for stories,
and they inspired him to appreciate the stories of people who did not look or
sound like him.
After
reporting local sports news for more than a decade, Ian Kennedy came across the
story of Chatham Coloured All-Stars Baseball Team, and this led him to learn
about athletes he had never heard about before.
When he met Dorothy Wright-Wallace, the
president of the Chatham- Kent Black History Society, she told him about her
brother, Eddie Wright, a famous hockey player and coach. Through her compelling
stories, she brought Eddie back to life.
Dorothy was seventy-eight years old when Ian
had his first conversation with her; he shares that moment of deep emotional
connection, for he could sense in her the essence of a person who had struggled
and loved deeply.
Ian
Kennedy interviewed dozens of athletes, coaches, their families and friends; his undertaking materialized into a unique book: On Account of Darkness, a
compilation of stories where the voices of Black, Indigenous and Japanese
Canadian families share experiences that have been relegated and ignored for so
long.
Despite the connection of Chatham-Kent with the Underground Railroad and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the pervasive influence of racial discrimination has affected the lives of many people. These stories are a testimony to the repercussions of ingrained gender and racial discrimination. The voices of these people unearth the truth that remains hidden under a façade of pride built upon the celebration of the Underground Railroad. It is what Ian Kennedy describes as the paradox of Canadian identity: “celebrating our history as heroes of the Underground Railroad while ignoring the century of racism that followed.”
Contrary to popular belief, most of the people
who volunteered to help set slaves free as part of the Underground Railroad
were people of color who had been slaves themselves, and, once liberated, they
risked their own lives and freedom for the freedom of others. Harriet Tubman's and Josiah Henson’s heroic actions are emblematic of what the struggle for
freedom means, even though school curricula do not pay enough attention to
them.
Ian Kennedy points out these blind spots in
his education when he writes, “Our teachers never spoke of Black history. They
did not mention Uncle Tom’s Cabin or the Underground Railroad, even though the
school was less than fifteen minutes from the historic site.”
The information about Josiah Henson’s life as
a slave inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe to write and publish her novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin in 1852.
Josiah Henson was a community leader and a
“conductor” of the Underground Railroad. He was born into slavery in Maryland.
He and his family endured years of cruel abusive treatment. In 1830 Josiah, his
wife, and two of his kids walked more than 600 miles to reach Canada. However, he repeatedly returned to the United States to
help guide 118 slaves to freedom, and he founded the Dawn settlement near
Dresden in Canada. This settlement where the community was able to thrive was described as an “oasis of freedom” for
people of color; it encompassed land for agriculture, a school and a church.
As a child and a teenager, Ian Kennedy encountered attitudes and words that referred to
Indigenous people as inferior people, and their mistreatment was normalized and
accepted.
“I grew
up learning jokes about Indigenous people. Teachers, coaches and friends used a
myriad of slurs to say that Indigenous people could not support their families,
were drunk, could not be trusted and were liable to steal or burn cars.” Indigenous
people were marginalized and labeled as “lazy.”
Some of the stories in this book brought tears to my eyes; they also made me feel angry, but it is a necessary read to raise awareness on
how issues of race and gender discrimination continue to persist today, not
only in terms of inequities, but also in the proliferation of hate crimes,
kidnappings and disappearances of indigenous women, police brutality and other
matters of unfair treatment that are often ignored.
I was shocked and horrified to learn about residential
schools for Indigenous people, where children were abused,
tortured, traumatized for life and even killed (I am sharing a recent article
on this in my list of references). The children were forced to attend these schools against their parents wishes. If the parents refused to "give" their kids, they were jailed.
Even though the book focuses mainly on the lives of athletes, sports are interlaced with politics and society in a way that makes the narrative riveting and relevant to every aspect of our modern societies.
There
are many fascinating facts to learn about, and I will highlight just a few. I
did not know anything about the spiritual meaning of Lacrosse and its
indigenous roots. Lacrosse was a spiritual practice played for healing, and it was
often used as a peaceful means of resolving social disputes. In the hands of Euro-Canadians,
however, its true meaning was erased, and Lacrosse was turned into a simple
form of entertainment.
I was also intrigued and inspired by the life
of Mary Ann Shadd (1823-1893) who opened an integrated school in Windsor in 1851,
following the example of The Buxton Mission School in the Elgin Settlement,
which people of all races attended due to its remarkable quality of education. The
Elgin settlement continues to exist today with a thriving community.
When Mary Ann Shadd was denied funding for her school because she refused segregation, she became the first Black woman to publish a newspaper. She was also the first Black woman to obtain a law degree in 1883 at Howard University. The women in the Shadd family have also been remarkable in breaking barriers and creating opportunities for marginalized women in sports.
On Account of Darkness will be released in May 2022 by Tidewater Press.
I received a copy of the book to write a
review.
Feel free to
check the relevant references I put together to learn more about the topics
mentioned in the post:
https://womenofthewhitebuffalo.com/about/
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/harriet-tubman
https://vitacollections.ca/ckmuseums/620/exhibit/2
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/underground-railroad/
