CBC journalist Garvia Bailey speaks during the panel discussion for ‘We’ve Been Here’, a permanent exhibit at the Stratford-Perth Museum that opened Saturday, Feb. 21
Stratford native Garvia Bailey joined the Stratford Perth Museum this past weekend to officially raise the curtain on ‘We’ve Been Here’, a permanent exhibit focused on unearthing historical black stories from Stratford and Perth County.
Saturday marked the opening of the exhibit’s second phase and Bailey hopes the message about local black history comes across strong.
“We’re not making up the idea of us having been here. It’s like a hand up; we actually have been the black presence in this area,” she said. “We’ve been here this whole time; this is not a new thing we’re trying to create.”
Phase II launched with a panel discussion on the stories of Perth County residents Ben Sleet, Joseph Harrison, and Sylvia (Young) Porter. Bailey and featured panelists Megan Lockhart from Stratford-Perth Archives, Bryan Prince of Buxton National Historic Site & Museum and Megan Patterson from Stratford Perth Museum served as moderators, with Patterson saying she hopes this exhibit will help bring people forward wanting to share their own stories.
“One of the messages that we want to display at this event and through the permanent exhibit is for people to feel inspired to share their story going forward,” she said. “We’re again at that point in history where we have to fight for these things; we have to create a platform for these stories to survive. Otherwise, we’ll go through the same process years from now, and they will be oppressed and forgotten with intent.”
The stories of Sleet, Harrison and Porter are displayed in three large-frame images and a virtual exhibit which can also be accessed on the museum’s website.
“There will be more added to this collection,” said Bailey. “We will begin to see more layers of presence within this community, and we’re very excited. Every time a new story or addition comes up, it’s just another spark.”
The third phase will be ready for the public this June, and Bailey is already looking forward to the public’s reception of it.
“There will be a lot of different layers in telling these stories and keeping the history here,” she said.
Patterson said that it can be challenging to verify sources to ensure that the material is authentic. Bailey explained that journalism and historical verification share similarities and work well together in a long from context.
“My passion is stories, and I love telling them,” said Bailey. “Black stories and stories about the marginalized and the Indigenous were not written down in the way that the dominant society had its own stories recorded. If they were written down and documented, it was through the lens of the dominant society. The stories then become harder to authenticate because they are recorded from the marginalized perspective.
“This is now a part of the written record – we’re still writing it.”