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Peggy Plet & the Black Presence in Berlin Walking Tour have been nominated for a "Public Education and Engagement" Heritage Award by the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario. Thank you to Kae Elgie for the nomination!!
As you know, it is my hope that Stroll Walking Tours is committed to telling stories and sharing histories that have been untold, dismissed or forgotten. We want to dig into stories beyond the dominant Euro-centric, white, German and Mennonite narratives commonly told about our cities and region – there were women, Indigenous peoples and Black people here too! and we want to talk about it.
From the nomination:
“The dominant and celebrated narrative of white German settlers who built this city left little room for any other histories,” Plet observed. She set out to change this.
Digging into historical databases and archives was challenging; pulling out the stories was even harder. There was a complete lack of historical documents written by Blacks, so Plet was forced to rely on history written from white perspectives. And even after she had pieced together the stories of the Black teachers, business people, lawyers and politicians who impacted Kitchener’s history, there were no physical markers left of their presence. With no physical buildings or plaques for people to identify where Black history existed in the Kitchener community, a walking tour, accompanied by photos of buildings that once stood, was the best that could be done.
Uncovering Kitchener’s Black heritage has changed Plet’s sense of belonging. “The walking tour made me view the city differently. It was powerful to realise that 200 years ago, Black people walked the same streets in downtown Kitchener that I walk today on my way to work.”
We'll let you know of Friday!
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