25 Feb Province Launches African Nova Scotian Online Heritage and Cultural Resource

Culture is empowered through shared history. For African Nova Scotians, their shared history has just become more accessible.

On Tuesday, February 25, Nova Scotia Archives launched on online archive system, containing countless documents and information relating to the history of African Nova Scotians in the province.

The resource is called, ‘Looking Back, Moving Forward: Documenting the Heritage of African Nova Scotians,’ and is a collection of a wide spectrum of different historical records from maps and photographs, to newspaper articles and rare publishing materials.

As more documents and archives are obtained, the online resource will see further inclusions of related historical records.

This centralized, free and online resource is at the forefront of achieving concrete advancements of both Nova Scotia’s Culture Action Plan and the UN’s declared International Decade for People of African Descent.

For the largest racialized group in Nova Scotia, who 71.8 per cent have roots going back three generations or more in the province, embracing and enhancing the culture, history and contributions of African Nova Scotians can only be a positive step towards greater provincial actions of cultural encouragement.

For a link to Looking Back, Moving Forward: Documenting the Heritage of African Nova Scotians, please visit: http://novascotia.ca/archives/african-heritage

For a copy of Count Us In: Nova Scotia’s Action Plan in Response to the International Decade for People of African Descent, 2015-2024, please visit: https://ansa.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/dpad-action-plan.pdf

For more information on Nova Scotia’s Culture Action Plan, please visit: https://novascotia.ca/culture/Culture-Action-Plan–English.pdf

For more information on the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent, please visit: https://www.un.org/en/events/africandescentdecade/recognition.shtml