Kitchener Public Library's first 2SLGBTQ+ archival collection marks a shift in the way we see local history

This new collection also begs the question of how can we collect and preserve the stories of other marginalized communities that are often left out of local history lore

OPINION

A neon yellow flyer advertising Pride Slide: A sledding event at Mt. Trashmore (aka McLennan Park) in 2004. Copies of defunct queer publications like Outlook and The Voice. Tri-Pride posters from the early 2000s. These items are more than just a collection of old documents: They mark moments in local queer history that are now preserved as part of Kitchener Public Library’s first 2SLGBTQ+ archival collection.

Rai Scodras, a library assistant and the project’s archivist, spent 3.5 months digitizing 200 materials donated by Ron Welker, a gay man who was active in the local queer scene in the 1990s and early 2000s.

This is the first time Welker’s personal collection of queer history — donated to the library in 2007 — will be made available to the public, and anyone can view the materials online. It’s a marked shift from the heteronormative, European settler history typically found in local history troves.

“I’m hoping people will see the long history of the queer community in this region,” Scodras said.

“It can sometimes be seen as a modern phenomenon, but it isn’t.”

Digitized Pride Slide flyer. Courtesy of Kitchener Public Library.

Scodras shared their discoveries at an event at Kitchener Public Library’s central branch on Wednesday to a crowd of about 50 people. They shared a sampling of some of the items, nostalgic to some in the audience and revelatory to others.

Scodras’ favourite items were old copies of queer publications that once circulated in the community.

“These were critical forms of communication because the internet didn’t exist,” said Jim Parrott, a longtime local queer activist and retired librarian who is also archiving queer history through the Grand River Rainbow Historical Project.

Issues of Outlook (published from 1995 to 1998) and The Voice (published from 1998 to 2003) featured event listings, advertisements from queer-friendly businesses, book reviews and news.

Parrott said most of local queer history is oral and not necessarily reflected completely in mainstream media and news archives. It’s important to preserve the histories of those who have not always been included in history, he said.

“We need oral histories from people in racialized communities as well,” Parrott added.

This idea really struck a chord with me because it is something I think about quite often.

We as residents of Waterloo Region know so much about European settler history – it is literally shoved in our faces everywhere we go, from street signs to names etched onto public buildings. I went to the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum recently and found displays documenting the first Romanian and Portuguese families to settle here. It was fascinating, but again, Eurocentric.

Thanks to local historians like Peggy Plet and Joanna Rickert-Hall we now know about some of the first Black settlers to call this region home.

But what about the many African and Caribbean immigrants who came to Waterloo Region much later?

Aaron Francis’ Vintage Black Canada project is an excellent example of a local Black family (his own Jamaican family) reclaiming space in Waterloo Region’s history. Historic photos of his family from the 1960s onward place them within the fabric of not only this region’s history, but also Canada’s history. Francis’ photo archive shows us that everyone has a place in this country’s history.

I often wonder about the settlement stories of other immigrants who came to this region in the hopes to lay down new roots. What did community look like for the first Chinese families who came to this region? Where did they make space for themselves? How did their community grow and change over the years? What were their struggles and their joys?

What about the first South Asians? Latin Americans?

What did community look like to urban Indigenous folks 20, 30 or 50 years ago?

The only way we will know is through oral history, by finding elders in these communities, documenting their stories and memories, preserving their photos and memorabilia. How many stores, restaurants, and places of worship that served immigrant communities have come and gone over the years? We just don’t know.

The task of documenting memories often falls to marginalized groups to volunteer to take on themselves, like Parrott and his historical project. these stories don’t make it outside those groups, and stay on the margins.

These communities’ histories have slipped past our collective efforts to include them as part of this region’s history. Their untold histories are just that — untold, ignored and deemed lesser than the dominant white settler histories that are collected by local institutions.

How can we place these marginalized histories where they belong? Alongside the white settler histories to illustrate a holistic understanding of this region, warts and all? A history that includes every community?

So much oral history from marginalized communities has already been lost, but there is hope to preserve these stories in the same way Kitchener Public Library and Parrott are preserving parts of local queer history.

KPL’s Grace Schmidt Room is where the library’s local historical content is stored. Its new 2SLGBTQ+ collection is a big shift from the white settler focused history the library currently holds.

Karen Ball-Pyatt, manager of the Grace Schmidt Room, said the library has future plans to archive historic materials from racialized communities of Waterloo Region in an effort to make the library’s historical collections truly reflective of the region’s history.

“We do want to welcome everything,” she said, noting the library is open to donations of historic materials.

The 2SLGBTQ+ digitalization project was made possible through an Edna Staebler Legacy Fund grant from the Waterloo Region Community Foundation.

Ball-Pyatt said this collection is a “good first step” for the library to diversify its archival content.

Hopefully more of an effort will be made to collect and preserve the histories of racialized communities in the region. I would love to see that in a local museum or library.

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Relevant links:

I heard about KPL’s new 2SLGBTQ+ archive through Alex Kinsella’s newsletter TL; WR. Give him a follow for weekly roundups of interesting events across the region.

You can browse the Ron Welker collection at Kitchener Public Library’s “History in the Making” online catalog here.

The Grand River Rainbow Historical Project can be found at grandriver-rainbowhistory.ca

Aaron Francis’ Vintage Black Canada project can be found on Instagram.

Peggy Plet created a Black Presence in Berlin walking tour last year. Look for future tour dates at Stroll Walking Tours.