Owning Our Histories

Join us for a presentation and panel exploring how communities document and preserve their own histories through DIY archiving practices. 

In the presentation, Scott Berwick, Manager of the Arts and Archives Department at Kanien'kehá:ka Onkwawén:na Raotitióhkwa Language and Cultural Centre will present the Centre’s initiatives to preserve Mohawk language materials, photography, video, and artifacts. This presentation explores decades of community-led cultural preservation work integrating artistic and archival practices with meaningful community engagement. 

Following the presentation, the panel, moderated by Taïna Mueth, will bring together archivists, researchers, and cultural educators from Gay, Lesbian, Chinese, and Caribbean communities to discuss recent projects documenting and preserving their own histories.

When mainstream institutions don’t document your community, you document it yourself. This panel explores what happens when communities take archiving into their own hands through grassroots, DIY preservation projects.

How can you participate? Join us in person or online by registering for the Zoom Meeting or watching live on YouTube.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca

Scott Berwick

Scott Berwick is a Fine Arts graduate from Concordia University and the current Manager of the Arts and Archives Department at KORLCC in Kahnawà:ke. Since 2018, he has developed programming that integrates artistic and archival practices with meaningful community engagement. 

Taïna Mueth

Taïna Mueth is an artist based in Tiotiaké, of Haitian and Cameroonian descent. She began her transition to the arts during the pandemic in 2020, after a career as a clinical nurse. Influenced by themes of cultural hybridization and identity, and an aesthetic marked by Afrosurrealism and Afrofuturism, Taïna seeks to challenge dominant narratives and create spaces for expression and imagination around the realities of marginalized people. Beyond her artistic practice, Taïna is actively involved in community and educational projects. Co-founder of the collectives Je suis Montréal and Learning Loop, she enjoys facilitating numerous workshops on topics such as anti-racism and social justice.

Parker Mah 馬世聰

Parker Mah 馬世聰 is a fourth-generation Chinese Montrealer of Toisanese descent, based in Tio’tia:ke. Multimedia artist, musician, and DJ, his diverse body of work tackles themes and realities of migration, hybridization and identity. He is also active in different cultural and activist spaces as a curator, moderator, trainer and community organizer. He is a founding member of Progressive Chinese Quebecers, and of the Jia Foundation. He co-hosted the feature length documentary Being Chinese in Quebec (2013), with Bethany Or. He also acted as curator and artistic director for two major site-based Chinatown exhibitions produced by the MEM.

Founded in 1983, the Quebec Gay Archives have a mandate to acquire, conserve and preserve any handwritten, printed, visual or audio material which testify to the history of the LGBTQ+ communities of Quebec. Our collections are available for public consultation during our regular opening hours.

The Quebec Lesbian Archives have been incorporated as a non-profit organization since January 2017. They are, amongst other things, the custodians of the collections assembled by Archives Traces,comprising thousands of documents and materials chronicling the social, cultural and political lives of Montreal, Quebec and Canadian lesbians.

Pat Dillon-Moore

Pat Dillon-Moore is an actress, broadcaster, and publicist with a repertoire of skills that includes writing, performance, and as a beloved emcee of cultural events. She carried the film Sitting in Limbo (1986 directed by John N. Smith); racked up notable theatre credits through the Black Theatre Workshop; founded a company (Black Arts Production); co-founded another (Amanda Jackson Communications); written and acted out a humorous and satirical Jamaican monologue series (Clemmie Is Mi Frien); and, in 1990, was appointed as a radio station manager of CKUT 90.3, the first Black woman to do so in Quebec. For 25 years in her long-held position as a publicist for the National Film Board of Canada, inspiring a great deal of admiration, and has even been hailed as one of the geniuses in the field by esteemed writer Christopher Moore. For the last 30 years, Pat has been a Montreal broadcaster on the FM band. She currently produces a Black ‎magazine and music format weekly show, Bhum Bhum Tyme. 

ABOUT THE SERIES

This event is part of "Owning Our Histories: Celebrating Queer & BIPOC DIY Archives," a series of ten free public events (Feb 13–Mar 29) exploring how communities create, share, and preserve their own histories through zines, oral traditions, grassroots collections, and independent publishing.

All events are free and open to the public. Find the full schedule on ARCMTL's website. 

Organized by ARCMTL.