First Person | The Prairies are rich with the collective memories of the Black people who came before us

Although racism greeted our ancestors at the border more than 100 years ago and continues today, Black bonding to this place is surprisingly prevalent. We’re rooted in the soil itself, and in our collective story that has imprinted the essence of us here. This imprint is also often felt by more recent waves of Black arrivals to the Prairies, who find resonance in the stories of their Place Ancestors: Black, Indigenous and Indigenous-Black.

I once had a conversation about this connection with my friend Michelle Thrush. Michelle is Cree, but now lives, as I do, on the traditional territory of the Blackfoot. In trying to explain the mix of emotions I feel about our presence on the Prairies, I told Michelle I used to describe my ancestors as having made a claim on this place. Yet the word claim has never felt accurate, given that this land was already peopled. The language available to me is transactional and doesn’t describe what “here” means to us.

Michelle responded with, “You can’t own the land. It claims you.”

That simple statement made sense to me in my striving to describe the Black Prairie experience in all its complexity. This place knows our story. The mountains, the rivers and the soil recognized us as whole, even though the government did not.

My guess is that if I had grown up learning the Indigenous languages of my region, I would have words that acknowledge the land as a family member.

Uncle Andrew was laid low by cancer in the last year of his life. I recall hearing Aunt Edie tell my mother that he wasn’t ready to give up the garden.

“I looked out the window this morning,” she said. “And I saw him lying in the dirt, planting seeds.”

Aunt Edie and Uncle Andrew have both been gone for a long time now. They’re buried side by side in This Place.

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Linda Peko (Jackson) Campbell’s lyrics and music in the piece are not to be duplicated or performed without written release from the artist.

Cheryl Foggo is a multiple-award-winning playwright, author and filmmaker. Her work over the last 30 years has focused on the lives of African descendants living in Western Canada.