For the next several weeks, this column will feature founding members of the new Unity Collective, a town-sanctioned group that aims to provide advice to council and the community on addressing systemic racism and diversity in Collingwood.
She only graduated high school six months ago, but she’s already working hard to change Collingwood for the better.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Emmalena MacDonald, 18, a member of the Unity Collective.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
A: I was born in Collingwood, although we lived in Stayner until I was four. Then we moved to Collingwood permanently and I’ve been here ever since.
Q: What schools did you attend?
A: I went to Cameron Street Public School, and Collingwood Collegiate Institute (CCI).
At one point I moved away to France and went to school there for three months.
I graduated from CCI in June.
Q: What made you want to get involved in the Unity Collective?
A: My mom is involved in the Collingwood Youth Centre, so she told me about the group.
I totally was on-board. At that time, I didn’t quite know what it was about. It was vague at the beginning.
I feel like youth are the way of change. Youth (are working) to build our future how we want it to be.
This is a big part of our future that we want to fix.
Q: In your opinion, what needs to be fixed/changed in regards to diversity in Collingwood?
A: Well, I grew up here. I haven’t even been here that long; it’s been 18 years.
Ever since I was a kid, it’s been a majority of white families here. There’s not a lot of diversity.
A few years ago, I think a lot of people from Toronto and bigger cities started moving up here, so now there’s more diversity.
There are some Syrian refugees that have come here.
I feel like many people don’t understand that even if someone is a different colour, we’re all the same.
People need to be educated.
Q: Have you seen students treated differently because of their race in schools?
A: I personally haven’t seen it, but I feel like it inevitably happens. It definitely happens.
There’s really not much schooling about it.
There was one English class we could take called Aboriginal English, and it was basically like a history class (where we learned) about Aboriginal people, how they lived and what white people have done to them, which is really wrong. I learned a lot there.
Other than that, there’s really nothing. We had other history classes but they wouldn’t touch on it.
I think it comes from the parents. When parents are harsh and rude about people of colour, it would be their kids who are also doing that.
I think we need to change the kids’ perspective so they grow up with a mind of their own and a better view of the world than what their parents had.
I think it’s also the friend group you hang out with.
Q: How have your experiences with the Unity Collective been so far? What have you taken away?
A: I’ve learned a lot of history about Collingwood that I didn’t know.
For example, how Collingwood was settled by African American slaves coming up to find freedom. I didn’t know that beforehand.
A big part of it is listening to other people’s stories about what they’ve experienced. My (experience) has been different because I have white privilege.
Going into 2021, it’s been so many years since white people started treating Black people poorly. We should be past this by now. What’s holding people back?
Q: Do you have any goals or hopes for what the Unity Collective will accomplish?
A: My goal is to have the collective go more public and have people from Collingwood and surrounding areas who want to learn more about people from different racial backgrounds come and sit in and hear stories in a safe and healthy environment.
I think the learning aspect is important.
Nobody knows everything. Every day we should be learning something new. It can improve your life, and make you think.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way, letting them tell their own stories in their own words. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
