Owning Our Histories

Join us for a presentation (2pm - 3pm) and panel (3:15pm - 5:30pm) 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.

Mark Andrew Hamilton, Les Archives gaies du Québec

Founded in 1983, Les Archives gaies du Québec 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. Mark Andrew Hamilton is a historian and researcher who specializes in queer archival and oral histories. His MA thesis focuses on the graphic ephemera of HIV/AIDS activist collective ACT UP Montréal, utilizing oral history and aesthetic analysis. He as also worked as the community director for QueerMTL at Tourisme Montréal and the curator of special exhibitions at the Archives gaies du Québec, where his exhibitions have included L’activisme esthétique d’ACT UP MONTRÉAL : une histoire en photos et en affiches, FAG QC* : 40 ans, 40 invité·es, 40 propositions tirées des Fonds des Archives Gaies du Québec, and GÉNÉRATION XEROX, an exhibition on queer zine and self-publishing culture.

Laure Neuville, Les Archives lesbiennes du Québec

Laure Neuville is an archivist and promoter of Les Archives lesbiennes du Québec, which houses thousands of documents and materials chronicling the social, cultural and political lives of Montreal, Quebec and Canadian lesbians. Neuville has served as administrative manager for the Table des groupes de femmes de Montréal and the Bibliothèque À livres ouverts (BALO) of the CCGLM. She has also been an activist with Amnesty International and contributed to the creation of a housing cooperative in Petite-Patrie. Within the LGBTQ+ community, she served on the editorial board of Homo Sapiens, was the communications officer for the provisional committee that led to the founding of the Réseau des lesbiennes du Québec (RLQ) in 1996, and was coordinator for the magazine Treize. Like Nicole Brossard, she believes that “a lesbian who does not reinvent the world is a lesbian on the verge of extinction.”

Pat Dillon-Moore

Pat Dillon-Moore is an actress, broadcaster, art imaginator and cultural producer whose work spans performance, media, and community activism and history. She starred in the feature film Sitting in Limbo (1986), directed by John N. Smith, built a strong theatre presence with Black Theatre Workshop and lead media campaigns for several of Canada’s leading filmmakers. In 1990, she became station manager of Montreal’s FM radio station, CKUT 90.3 — the first Black woman to hold that role in Quebec and second woman in Canada. For over 30 years, she has hosted Bhum Bhum Tyme, a Black magazine and music program on CKUT. In 2025, she conducted the Pioneer Grooves Afro-Caribbean oral history project, documenting the history of underappreciated local musicians from the community.

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.