I have a similar story.
I wasn't aware of my relatives in Nova Scotia and what they accomplished. I refer to the No. 2 Construction Battalion, and the book that Rosemary talks about, written by Calvin Ruck, who helped bring me into the world. I was born in Halifax, and Calvin Ruck was a good friend of my mom. I was born at home, and they helped to deliver me, bring me into the world. I grew up knowing about the No. 2 Construction Battalion, but I had no idea that the chaplain for the battalion was my great-uncle. I didn't know that he had left a diary. When I read his diary, which had been given to me by his son, my cousin, it blew me away, because there was no other handwritten account of what happened to those black soldiers when they were serving in France. This was the only existing account of what happened. He wrote everything he saw and everything that happened to these soldiers. So when I read the diary, it just blew me away, and it was the inspiration for me to do the film.
Reverend William White, who was the chaplain of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, was the only commissioned black officer in the entire British armed forces during the First World War. His daughter, Portia White, became Canada's first international black opera star.
So I was amazed with my own family history. I didn't realize it until I started investigating the story of the book written by Calvin Ruck.
One of the things that the centre could do—and we see all these ads about ancestry.com and ancestry.ca.—is offer a section, asking “What is your story?” This is where you should go. “What have you done? What have your ancestors done?”
One of the things we do when we go to schools for Black History Month is inspire kids to look into their own family history, to discover their history.
A few years ago, I did a series for OMNI Television. About 18 different ethnic communities in Canada have made contributions to Canada: Portuguese, Italian, Chinese.... It was an eye-opener for me hosting and producing this show, because I was never aware of the contributions. I didn't know that the Italians were part of building the railroad for this country. Of course, we all know about the Chinese sacrifices, but I didn't know the Italians were involved, and all the other community ethnic groups.
It's important to know the contributions that your own particular cultural group has made to this country. So possibly the museum could offer a little section, asking “What is your story? Where do you come from?”