On Sept. 6, the University of New Brunswick Harriet Irving Library became the temporary home of New Brunswick Black History Society’s time-walk exhibit. The exhibit will be available until Sept. 29.
The time-walk exhibit uses an interactive touchscreen so that users can navigate the stories of historical Black figures and key moments in NB Black history at their own pace.
“We’re very happy to be in the position to show the rest of the world that Black people could be whatever they wanted to be, but they did it the hard way, starting in the beginning,” said Ralph Thomas, co-founder of the New Brunswick Black History Society (NBBHS).
The NBBHS started nearly 10 years ago, but the search for NB’s Black history materialized after Thomas visited Kings Landing and realized there was barely any information about Black people.
As a Kings Landing board member at the time, Thomas discussed the lack of information with the board, which eventually led to the construction of a replica of the James Gordon Loyalist House.
“My interest picked up from there, because I said, ‘Well, gee, what else is going on in the province of New Brunswick that has not been told about Black people?’”
Since then, Thomas has made it his mission and the mission of NBBHS, to uncover the vast history of Black people in the province. While their quest is ongoing, the time-walk exhibit is a product of years of seeking out Black stories.
“Our black history was never, ever told. All of a sudden, the doors started to open. People start being very interested.”
Thomas said the idea began two years ago. The NBBHS was often travelling to schools around the province to do presentations on Black history, which prompted the group to create something new and exciting; the time-walk exhibit was born.
“The last two years it’s been in demand, so it’s a major item,” said Thomas. “People show great interest in Black history, … people from outside of New Brunswick come to see this travelling machine.”
The ‘time machine’ as Thomas calls it, started its life at UNB Saint John in November of 2023, where it stayed in their library until February. Over the course of three months, the exhibit amassed over 18,000 users.
Among these users in its time at UNBSJ was Hillary Nguyen, International Student Transition Advisor at UNB Fredericton. Nguyen had never heard of the exhibit before, but was ‘enlightened’ to see the work being done by NBBHS.
“It was very mind blowing,” Nguyen said. “I was like, ‘wow, there’s such a cool exhibit and we didn’t know about this?’”
After seeing the exhibit, Nguyen knew they had to bring it to UNB. She partnered with the UNB Human Rights and Equity Office and the Harriet Irving Library to have the installation come to campus.
As a former international student, and a passionate advocate for social justice and education, Nguyen wanted to have the time-walk at UNB to both teach the community about this history, but also foster an educational space to bring students together.
“I don’t think that it is a very common conversation, or at least when you talk about the history of New Brunswick,” they said. “I think it’s also an inspiration for a lot of our students, especially our Black students, both international and domestic.”
The exhibit will be available in the main hall of the library until the end of the month. In the meantime, Thomas and the NBBHS are continuing to work towards uncovering NB’s Black history, one story at a time.
“There’s all kinds of information yet to be found,” said Thomas. “You will be amazed what we went through to get to where we are.”
