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On the occasion of Black History Month, La Converse interviews Nancy Oliver-Mackenzie. Originally from Nova Scotia's historic Black community, rooted in the region since the 17th century, and a Montrealer for over 50 years, she is dedicated to sharing and preserving parts of history that are often overlooked. Nancy Oliver-Mackenzie gets up early.
“I can sleep and get up whenever I want, but I like to go to the window and observe the sky before sunrise,” the dean describes her life in her home in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, where she lives alone but is well surrounded. Now retired, the former teacher and community organizer is not about to slow down.
What ignites him is the discovery of history, a family history that dates back to slavery in the 1800s, or the forgotten black history of his adopted city, Montreal.
In the footsteps of his ancestors
“When my mother died in 1991, I inherited an album of family photos that I had never seen,” she says. These images, some of which date back to the 1920s and 1930s, reflect life in Nova Scotia at the time. “They tell a wonderful story,” says Nancy.
“I want to digitize them to preserve them and share this story.” This is one of his many projects. This album launched her to discover her origins, a long-term work that requires a lot of time and work.
Each time she stayed in her home province, Nancy rummaged through archives and registers, and deciphered documents on microfilm. That's how she discovered Moses, her paternal great-great-grandfather. He and his family, who were slaves, fled Maryland for Nova Scotia during the Anglo-American War of 1812. “He worked on a tobacco farm. With his wife, a domestic slave, and their 14-month-old daughter, he took a boat to Nova Scotia. They settled near Halifax.
What's next is history,” says Nancy. Life was initially perilous in the Maritimes. “They got land that was difficult to farm anything on. They fought for several generations before they really did more than survive.”
She shares a thought that crossed her mind the very morning of our conversation: “I wish people could understand how many pioneers there were in our history, what we owe to their perseverance, their tenacity, their vision,” she says. “Can you imagine being on a tobacco farm, hearing about a place, Canada, and having a vision for the future, despite all the risks?
They had to think about all that while being kept slaves,” she describes. Today it is difficult to imagine such a life in the particularly trying conditions of tobacco cultivation. “I think it is incredible that they were able to marry, have a child, and found a way to get to the boat.”
We then imagine a young 30-year-old father, his 18-year-old wife and their one-year-old baby escaping in the morning light, to cross the vast countryside on foot, to the ocean. Nancy is still on the trail of her maternal ancestors.
His maternal grandfather was the only black officer appointed during the First World War. She has in her possession a copy of the diary he kept during the war. In it, he mentions letters he wrote to his wife and 9-year-old daughter — Nancy's mother — the racist incidents of which black soldiers are victims, but also the unity of soldiers at the front.
“One of the wonderful things [in the paper] is the trusting relationship between these men, who were so close,” she says. “It's not very detailed, but you can read between the lines.” Himself the son of a slave, his grandfather came directly from the United States to live in Nova Scotia. “There is so much to discover,” she adds.
Education at the heart of the community
Nancy moved to Montreal in 1967 with a university degree in early childhood studies in her pocket. Having little confidence in the public network of the time, she first chose to become a stay-at-home mom to raise her two children. In the process, she obtained a teaching degree from McGill University and began a career as a teacher. Her children then attended the elementary school that would become FACE, of which she was one of the founding parents.
“The director had set up a lot of extracurricular activities: music, art, theater, and outings,” she recalls. “The parents and the administration wanted to make everything more formal by founding an alternative school.”
The school was founded in 1975. Her children grew up, and a desire to see the country led Nancy to teach in Inukjuak, a village in Northern Quebec. She then headed for Southern Africa, where she taught in Botswana and Eswatini.
Educating through the community
After a few years abroad, Nancy put her bags back in Montreal. Eager for change, she left teaching for community work. “The public school system was not particularly stimulating or interesting and did not really meet all the needs of children.
I thought that maybe I could do more outside of this system,” she reports. She then lived across the street from the NDG Black Community Center, where she first became involved as a volunteer. She then worked there for several years. “I realized that it was not only about children, but adults as well.
There are ways to come together and support each other that don't depend on the system. We have to work from where we are and not have something imposed on us,” she believes. Nancy speaks highly of the organization, which no longer exists today. “Black community centers did not survive this millennium. I don't really understand why,” she regrets. Indeed, several institutions have closed their doors, while others have changed their vocation.
She cites the Negro Community Centre of Montreal (NCC), a heritage institution in Little Burgundy founded in 1927, of which she was a member. The center, which notably hosted the visit of Nelson Mandela in 1990, ceased operations at the beginning of the 2000s. A group of citizens wants to revive the historic center with a museum and community center project.
“My philosophy is that we really need to stick together to collaborate and work together in order to avoid this kind of situation,” she says. “We have to do everything we can to stay together and not see these centers disappear.”
Well at home
A woman with a big heart, Nancy has taken part in several communities. “You can have your own community no matter where you live,” she believes. For nearly 30 years, she has been a member of the Union United Church of Montreal, a historic church in Montreal. “When I came back from Africa in the early 1990s, I really needed to feel at home, with black people,” she says of her immersion in African culture.
“Montreal looked like a sea of white faces. It was really hard to adapt to a completely white environment. I wanted to feel more comfortable,” she recalls. Union United Church, located at the crossroads of downtown, Saint-Henri, and Little Burgundy, is the oldest Black congregation in Canada. It was founded in 1907 by black parishioners who were victims of racial discrimination in white churches. Nancy is working to preserve the institution's rich history thanks to a website.
“I put up biographies, photos, newspaper articles, you know, anything I can find,” she explains. She hopes to be able to resume the project after the pandemic. With her research, she also wants to highlight the contribution of black women, who are all too often forgotten. “I really feel that there are so many unsung heroes, especially women,” notes Nancy. “I am particularly interested in them. It's hard to find the documents.
We often hear about the ones that are in the public eye, but we don't hear about some of them that have had a huge impact on a lot of people. That's what I'm really interested in. A lot of women volunteered a lot and helped the community. And their stories need to be told, just like the stories of famous people,” she believes.
It also lists several female jazz musicians from Montreal who we have often never heard of. Artists to discover, or to rediscover, like the pianist Ilene Bourne. Nancy loves movies and reading, and we hope that we will soon be able to read or watch her stories. A publisher was interested in her military grandfather, but she doesn't want to tell her family story halfway. “For me, that wasn't enough.” she says. “After all, that's who I am.”