Black History Month is a time to highlight the history of Black Canadians and their communities, the traumas they face, and their contributions to Canada. This year, the Canadian Government released the theme of Black History Month as “February and Forever Celebrating Black History today and every day” which focuses on recognizing the daily contributions that Black Canadians make to Canada.
As part of Black History Month, the CBC hosted a panel discussion with members of the African Heritage Club at Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School in Kitchener, ON, during which the students addressed what Black History Month means to them and what they would like it to look like going forward. Some common themes in the panel were:
- Everyone should contribute to Black History Month
- More focus on celebrating the accomplishments of Black people, the things that are going on in our community, and Black joy
- To keep talking about Black history and bringing it up so that everyone can be educated
EDICA Honours the Legacy
In the spirit of honouring the legacy of Black Canadians, the EDI Community Alliance (EDICA) dedicated their February 2022 meeting to envisioning the celebration described by the students of the African Heritage Club.
The EDICA’s meetings focused on five areas:
- What is Black History Month.
- Historic Perspective of Black Canadians.
- Contributions to the Black Community and Canada.
- Black Joy: embracing and appreciating Blackness in its authenticity and fullness.
- What can we do? Black Futures and a call to action.
Although our meetings are only an hour in length, we would like to invite everyone to view the information we have compiled that celebrates the Black Community and we encourage everyone to use this as a starting point to conduct research, raise awareness, have conversations, and celebrate Black Joy.
Prompting questions to help start a discussion:
- What was the most impactful thing included in the presentation?
- What was one thing you learned that you did not know before viewing the presentation?
- What is something you, or your organization, can do to celebrate Black Joy?
Black History Month Presentation
At Welch, we believe the presence of EDI in the workplace is essential to our firm’s long-term success. The EDI Community Alliance teams up with like-minded professional service firms and organizations in the Ottawa community to support each other to improve our own EDI practices.
If interested in joining our EDI Community Alliance, please send an email to [email protected].
Author
Moriah Gibbs
[email protected]
Senior Staff Accountant
