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.
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A local poet and playwright has put her experiences as a person of colour in Collingwood into shareable stories.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Brenda Miller, a member of the Unity Collective.
Q: For how long have you lived in Collingwood?
Miller: "I grew up in Collingwood. It’s my hometown. I’ve lived here the majority of my life.
I went to Admiral Collingwood Elementary School, Victoria School and Collingwood Collegiate Institute."
Q: What is your ethnic background?
Miller: "I call myself a Negro.
I don’t like the term Black."
Q: Why is that?
Miller: In my mind, black is not a colour for people. Black refers more to the movement, or the organization of people of colour. I am more focused on that type of thing because I’m not part of the U.S. They use that more as a power symbol and refer to themselves that way.
I feel that Canadian Negroes have a different mindset. A lot of my relatives call themselves Black, but our family does not.
Q: What led you to want to join the Unity Collective?
Miller: "I got involved through Tanya (Mazza, arts and culture coordinator) with the town. I’m a poet, and they had asked me to write a poem about one of the parks in town. Everyone received a list to choose a park. When I looked at the list, I immediately contacted Tanya and told her I couldn’t do it. She asked why not.
I told her it was because they missed one of the parks. They left out J.J. Cooper Park.
J.J. Cooper was an ancestor of Collingwood. He was a Negro man; very popular and well-known. After he passed away, one of his properties was donated as a park.
I asked her why she thought his name was left off the list.
It’s because people don’t think of us.
We got to talking about more projects. That’s how I got involved. I was looking for a place to forward my suggestions."
Q: What do you hope to bring to the table of the Unity Collective?
Miller: "I’d like to bring my own point of view because as it stands, there are only seven people of colour on the collective. So already, we’re outnumbered. We need more voices to speak up for our issues. I think there are between 15 and 20 people that make up the collective, and growing."
Q: What could Collingwood do to better address diversity?
Miller: "Personally, I haven’t had a lot of issues or problems due to being a person of colour, that I recall.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot more since I joined the collective.
To my knowledge, I’ve never struggled to get a job because of my colour. It’s possible I’m just being naive. Nothing has happened to my face. My parents went through a few things, but that’s another generation.
My parents always told us to keep our heads down and work really hard. They said you have to work harder than others. That has affected my self-confidence.
For other upcoming generations to not feel that lack of self-confidence, (I think) education and schools need to (share) the stories behind why it might be hard for some people to accept people of colour. Most of it comes from ignorance.
I’m not sure how to combat that. We’re going to try in our own little way.
You need to have a place for people of colour to go and voice what they’re feeling inside. In order for that to work you need to have a person from the same culture that can listen and understand where you’re coming from. That’s one of the things I’d like to see the committee address."
Q: You mentioned you had a story from your childhood you’d like to share?
Miller: "Yes. I actually wrote a play about it.
I was part of the Dan Needles playwright workshop last spring.
The story I wrote was a true story. It was about me and my sister. We used to walk home from Victoria School. There was another student whose family lived behind us. His mom and our mom would wave to each other. The other family was a Caucasian family.
My sister and I used to walk home from school every day on the same route. We lived about two or three blocks from the school, at Maple and Eighth Street. This young fella used to come up behind us every day and call us names.
We got sick and tired of it and we came up with a plan that we were going to get him back.
We waited for him one day while sitting on the white fence at the corner.
He came trotting up and as he got to us we jumped off the fence and wrestled him to the ground. I whipped out a black magic marker and we painted his face black.
We asked him, 'How does it feel? How do you like it?'
He jumped up and ran home. We ran to school. I thought we were going to be in so much trouble when we got home. We didn’t get in trouble. His mom said, 'Well, it probably served him right.'
So I wrote that up as a play. They picked three plays from the workshop to be put on as part of Gaslight. My play didn’t get picked.
One of the members from the Gaslight came up to me to talk to me about it. She said they didn’t know how they would find someone of that age group and colour to play the parts because there were no young, brown actresses. It was really too bad."
Q: What are your hopes for the Unity Collective moving forward? What kind of change are you hoping to affect?
Miller: "I’d like to feel in the air that we are as equal as everyone else. I don’t even want to have to think about that. I just want to be one of the people who live in the Town of Collingwood.
I don’t want to have to go to a group to talk about diversity.
I want all that to be gone and over."
Q: Is there anything else you’d like people in Collingwood to know about you?
Miller: "My great grandfather Miller was one of the people who started the Owen Sound Emancipation Festival. Lots of people from Owen Sound came here and settled in Collingwood. My father was from there, and my mother was from New Lowell. Sometimes people ask me when I’m walking down the street, 'Are you Jamaican?'
That offends me. Why am I offended by that? I’m still trying to understand why that offends me.
When you see a Caucasian person on the sidewalk, they don’t get asked where they’re from.
I’m hoping to see in Collingwood that people start understanding cultural differences.
I’d like to be able to walk downtown and not feel like I’m different."
THE STRUGGLE (Ode to Black Lives Matter 2020)
A poem by Brenda Miller
I am so truly fortunate and grateful to be a Canadian Woman of Colour.
My ancestors’ struggle, was infinitely greater than my parents.
My parents’ struggle was less than our ancestors, although, it was definitively greater than my own.
My struggle, was less than my parents, yet, was still greater than my daughter’s.
My daughter's struggle was less than my own, however, remains greater than her young son’s.
Her son’s struggle, will either be ended for good – or will recycle, to repeat the past.
And so, we will rise again
It is up to Canada how this legacy unfolds; it is up to every Canadian, you and me, to show the world how to be inclusive. Through education, open conversation, patience, and perseverance, we shall all overcome and find a place in our hearts for every race, creed, and colour.
This is our goal. Now, is the time!
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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].
