AHA! CONNECTS! – May 1, 2023
Antigonish Community History
From 2014-2017, Dorothy Lander and John Graham-Pole led AHA! in embracing two projects that celebrated Antigonish’s history in very nontraditional ways, with the conviction that “A Healthy Community Knows its History”. With immense gratitude to Dorothy and John, this edition of AHA! Connects! celebrates these two very ambitious projects and their creators, both remarkable arts-health advocates.
Imagine Antigonish: Heritage Photos for Community Health
Imagine Antigonish presents a visual history of the essential conditions for community health and
wellbeing by mapping restored old photos with the Social Determinants of Health. It is a travelling exhibit that combines an installation of 14 banners with a virtual gallery of restored black-and-white photographs, capturing almost 150 years of the rural and urban heritage of Antigonish town and county: https://www.imagineantigonish.ca.
Dorothy and John, after collecting and having the photos restored for the banners, then published The People’s Photo Album, creating a stunning photo-history of Antigonish, available through HARP Publishing.
Dorothy’s reflection:
For most people, when they think about The Antigonish Movement, the first names that come to mind are Frs. Moses Coady and Jimmy Tompkins. But when we had the idea of creating The People’s Photo Album, we wanted to capture the small stories that most of us don’t think of, like those of the Sisters of St. Martha, the librarians, and countless small cooperatives. Until we recorded the story of the Martin Street Housing Cooperative, few people had even heard of it: an inspiring tale of a community of five houses built by five families in 1960, at a time of overt racism and other hardships for Black families in Antigonish.
The “kitchen meeting’ was a staple of the Antigonish Movement, beautifully captured by Adam Tragakis on the back cover of the book, complete with Zita Cameron at her typewriter, upon which she is shown typing out a list of all the organizations that came under the rubric of The Antigonish Movement.
1784: (Un)Settling Antigonish
Dorothy and John created 1784: (Un)Settling Antigonish after a year-long journey of exploring, listening
and cross-cultural community building. A popular theatre pilgrimage performed by a local cast of 30 people of all ages, ethnicities, and acting experience, re-told Antigonish’s history, taking into account diverse cultural perspectives. It was performed five times in the summer of 2015, with several hundred viewers witnessing the challenge to the Eurocentric historical record. Spaces were opened for re-storying public narratives and voice was given to those who have long remained silent.
A documentary film of the process and production, created by Denise Davies, is available for those seeking to build bridges through speaking truth to history.
https://www.harppublishing.ca/books/1784-unsettling-antigonish-film/
Film Trailer
The film is a response by Dorothy and John to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 Report’s 94 Calls to Action. They believe that reconciliation took place both on and off the stage and continues through the film.
Reflections by Denise Davies
It was a treasured experience to document on film the community building process through all the rehearsals and the several live performances. The diversity of the cast and building the relationships and knowledge of a shared but unknown history created a real bond CROSS cultures, ages, experience and backgrounds. It was a real learning experience.
A wealth of history restored! Kudos!
We are so blessed that Dorothy and John have revived all that positiveness contained in the small and bigger unknown folders of our Antigonish community historical secrets. Merci beaucoup!