Please reach out - we would LOVE to work together!
Looking forward!Send us an email: info@afrometis.ca |
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With Gratitude: FUNDERS
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Toronto Arts Council (TAC) is the City of Toronto’s funding body for artists and arts organizations. Since 1974, TAC has offered innovative and responsive programs, enabling artists and arts organizations to explore, create and thrive. With funding of over $25 million annually, TAC grants lead to exhibitions, performances, readings and workshops seen each year by over 5 million people across the city. TAC is proud to play a leadership role in fostering Toronto’s dynamic and diverse arts scene. |
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With Gratitude: SPONSORS
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MEDIA
Afro-Métis Anthem and Catalysts in the NEWS
Linda Carvery
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George Elliott Clarke
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Sheila White
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George Elliott Clarke
Sheila White |
Sheila White
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Chris White
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LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to acknowledge this land on which the ANTHEM campaign exists in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.” Now, we “Africadians” include multiple African diasporas as well as mixed-race progeny, whose DNA is both cosmopolitan and truly indigenous—due to Cherokee and/or Mi’kmaw admixture, thus creating the “Afro-Métis.” |
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“Indigenous Blacks”—or “Africadians”—or “African-Nova Scotians” have resided in Nova Scotia—originally (and still) Mi’kma’ki—for over 400 years, since 1605. First brought as enslaved people to Louisbourg, Cape Breton (1713-1760), then as enslaved “Planters” to Halifax and the mainland (1749-1760), their ancestors were also anti-slavery Black Loyalists (1783), Maroons (1796-1800), War of 1812 Black Refugees (1812-1816), and free workers and miners in industrial Cape Breton (early 20th Century).Hailing historically from colonial New England and Dixie, then Jamaica, and then the British West Indies, this polyglot and multicultural Black people are a distinct North Atlantic offshoot of the African Diaspora.
Their landed presence connects Nova Scotia to pre-and-post-revolutionary United States, Bermuda (via the Royal Navy), Jamaica (via the Maroons), Sierra Leone (via Black Loyalists and Maroons), and the British West Indies (especially Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad), and to the United Kingdom.
A resilient people, the African-Nova Scotians—despite slavery, racism, and segregation—built 52 communities, all anchored by a self-instituted church, all about Mi’kma’ki, but on the worst possible land provided by racist governments. Still, this land-base allowed a powerful culture, specific form of English, and spirited faiths to take root and thrive. \
They have astonished the globe as acclaimed athletes, singers, musicians, artists, warriors, scholars, and preachers.Now, we “Africadians” include multiple African diasporas as well as mixed-race progeny, whose DNA is both cosmopolitan and truly indigenous—due to Cherokee and/or Mi’kmaw admixture, thus creating the “Afro-Métis.”
Their landed presence connects Nova Scotia to pre-and-post-revolutionary United States, Bermuda (via the Royal Navy), Jamaica (via the Maroons), Sierra Leone (via Black Loyalists and Maroons), and the British West Indies (especially Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad), and to the United Kingdom.
A resilient people, the African-Nova Scotians—despite slavery, racism, and segregation—built 52 communities, all anchored by a self-instituted church, all about Mi’kma’ki, but on the worst possible land provided by racist governments. Still, this land-base allowed a powerful culture, specific form of English, and spirited faiths to take root and thrive. \
They have astonished the globe as acclaimed athletes, singers, musicians, artists, warriors, scholars, and preachers.Now, we “Africadians” include multiple African diasporas as well as mixed-race progeny, whose DNA is both cosmopolitan and truly indigenous—due to Cherokee and/or Mi’kmaw admixture, thus creating the “Afro-Métis.”