Quebec

December 16, 2020

The footage shows the Seaman family with some cousins, enjoying Christmas brunch at home on Lippé Street, in St. Laurent, where they lived for about three or four years. Christmas was a big deal in their house. Annually, they would enjoy a big breakfast before opening presents. As Catholics, the day would also include attending Christmas mass, then later welcoming relatives and friends at the home for a holiday celebration, involving lots more food, including Caribbean dishes and desserts.

Item consists of a Black-Canadian family’s home movie featuring children gathering around a kitchen table, making the sign of the holy cross, pointing to watches they just received for Christmas, and eating brunch with two adults.

December 16, 2020

Daily life in Montreal, Quebec. This footage shows Heather trying to teach her younger sister Hazel how to brush her teeth. Heather describes this footage as “normal kids doing normal things.” Heather recalls playing at the park across from her family home a lot and riding their bikes. She describes the home in this footage as her “first family home in Montreal,” located on Couvrette Street in St. Laurent, which is a borough in Montreal, Quebec.

Item consists of a Black-Canadian family’s home movie featuring a child brushing the teeth of a younger child. Footage also features children playing on a swing set in a park, a boy riding a bicycle and a girl riding a tricycle, and playing on a slide.

December 16, 2020

The Seaman family moved to their second family home on 100th Avenue in Chomedey, Laval, Quebec in the mid-1970s. In this particular footage, Heather recalls getting ready for Halloween and dressing up in homemade costumes. Heather recalls doing a multitude of different activities as a child, and explains that they weren’t limited as children. For example, her brother, Herbert, played hockey at a high level and played guitar, while she and her sister Hazel figure skated, took piano lessons, and dance classes. “We were the only Black family in the neighbourhood and an interesting story is when we first moved there, people were shocked to see a Black family with two cars!”

In Laval, while living at their fourth family home, back on 100th Avenue in Chomedey, Heather’s mother, Althea Joseph Charles Seaman, started the ‘Laval Black Community Association’ in 1983 to bring together Black people from different cultural backgrounds. The intention was to create a support system, but also a space for people to learn about each other’s cultures and share their achievements and heritage with the wider Canadian community. Her mother also developed an annual Black History Month celebration where people showcased their artwork, music, writing, spoken word pieces and dance performances. Business people, clergy from various faiths and politicians from all levels of government were always in the audience – no matter their race or whether they were English or French speakers. “The organizations that our mom created were to give us a sense of our heritage” and to share that with others.

Item consists of a Black-Canadian family’s home movie featuring children in costumes, joking around, waving to the camera, entering and exiting a home, and showing off their treats.

December 16, 2020

This footage was shot in the mid-1970’s and marks one of the first Montreal Caribbean Carnival celebrations in the city. Heather’s parents, Richard and Althea Seaman, brought her and her siblings, Hazel and Herbert, to see their first few parades as spectators. In later years, the family was occasionally involved as participants – whether helping to create costumes, build floats or march in the annual parade. The summer event was established to celebrate and showcase the Caribbean culture and heritage of immigrants, who were born on one of the diverse islands of the West Indies or those who had ancestry there. While Caribbean immigrants in Toronto started their carnival celebration – Caribana – in 1967, to mark Canada’s centennial celebration, Montrealers held their first Carifiesta parade and festival in July 1975.

Item consists of a Black-Canadian family’s home movies featuring crowds and performers at Montreal Carifiesta parade. Participants in costumes are playing mas, marching with a masquerade band. Several carnival bands – made up of dozens and sometimes hundreds of participants, wearing themed costumes created by various Caribbean designers and assembled by volunteers – would dance and perform for crowds and a group of judges (who would select and later announce the best mas band) at a local stadium, before the masquerade bands would make their way through downtown streets. In the 70’s and 80’s, the Carifiesta parade would mainly make its way along Ste-Catherine Street in Montreal, before the parade was moved to nearby René Lévesque Boulevard in later years.

May 7, 2019

“Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “These clips show episodes from Jean-Pierre Marchant’s childhood in the mid-1970s Montreal. His parents were immigrants, recently arrived from Argentina and Chile. Throughout Jean-Pierre’s childhood, they documented the family’s life with a Super 8 camera (and would later switch to video). These clips depict him as a playful child, trips, and well-attended birthday parties. Looking back, Jean-Pierre recognizes that these parties were a big opportunity for the adults to get together and celebrate. The Marchants mostly socialized with people from similar backgrounds, and Jean-Pierre says that “it was important for my parents, who were trying to make a life in a new place, to associate with others who spoke their language.””

May 7, 2019

Video recording from 1971 consisting of a Haitian family and their neighbours shovelling snow and digging out the street. Recording also features children playing in the snow and a tracker snowplowing the street. Project and donor(s) contributed description follows: “On March 4th, 1971, Montreal saw the “Storm of the Century”, a massive snowstorm brought 43cm of snow and 100/km winds to the city. It would take 41 years for this snowfall record to be broken. People lost electricity for as long as ten days. Nadine recalls living on St. Leonard and not being able to see through her patio doors and that the only people who could get around were emergency vehicles and snowmobiles. Of course this major setback meant snow days for everyone, and Nadine’s parents and neighbours got to shovelling. In a predominantly Italian neighbourhood, Nadine suspects her family may have been the only Black family on this street. With no school, five-year old Nadine took pleasure in the Montreal pastime of building snow forts.”