‘We are the ones left to tell’: Preserving the legacy of Black New Brunswick families

It was standing-room-only crowd at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery on Feb. 19 for a talk about a new art project and upcoming event about and for Black families in New Brunswick.

First to speak, spoken word poet Thandiwe McCarthy revealed that the Still Here: Preserving our legacy project brings together “15 generational Black families” from all over New Brunswick. Families were asked to be interviewed, tell their stories, pose for family history and share photos and archives of their relatives.

Many members of participating families were in attendance, like the Dymond and McCarthy families.

Still Here is a project “very near and dear to my heart,” Thandiwe McCarthy said. His personal interest in the questions of Black identity started in his childhood in Woodstock, when people would ask him to share his experience of his identity during Black History month.

It was through McCarthy’s research on Afro-descendants in New Brunswick and his mother, historian Mary McCarthy-Brandt, that he came to explore this rich history. He was also key to applying for and confirming the funding for the Still Here project from the Canadian Council of the Arts.

Thandiwe McCarthy was key to getting one of the historic books on the topic, 1972’s The Blacks in New Brunswick by William A. Spray, republished by St. Thomas University, five years ago. The proceeds from the reedited book were directed to bursaries for Black students. McCarthy also decided to tell his own story; he is the author of his own memoir Social Oblivion: Raised Black in Canada, published in 2022.

Mary McCarthy-Brandt who is a sixth generation Black New Brunswicker, shared the story of her ancestors and parents, which are included in the book and expo. Part of her talk was titled “A Black Love Story.”

From a family of 13, McCarthy-Brandt’s mother was a teacher in North Preston, Nova Scotia, originally from New Brunswick. Her father was a soldier that had been wounded, originally from outside of Fredericton. They met in Halifax and were married in 1945, eventually having 9 children and settling in Woodstock, New Brunswick.

McCarthy-Brandt shared some of the prominent members of the families involved, including Lalia Halfkenny, the first racialized person to graduate from an institute of higher education in New Brunswick.

As a historian, she interviewed families participating in Still Here either in person or by videoconference, asking them questions about their family ancestry and history, their impact on the broader community, the significant events they’d lived, etc.

The third participant was Gary Weekes, UNB’s current Media Artist in Residence with funding from artsNB. He explained his background in photography which led to his interest in collaborating with the McCarthys for this expo and its accompanying book Still Here, being published by Goose Lane Editions in June 2026.

During the Still Here project, to document the families, Weekes took group pictures, individual portraits and some documentary photos. Weekes and Thandiwe McCarthy spent two to three hours with each family taking photos and scanning their family photos.

They worked from June 2023 to December 2023, visiting families. Their first group was the Halfkenny family on the border with Amherst, Nova Scotia. “These families were just like my family,” Weekes said.

“The families let down their guards,” which allowed Weekes to take photographs of poignant moments. Weekes remarked that the relatives “put down their petty grievances” for the time of the visit, creating moments of harmony and unity. Weekes exhibited spectacular images from the upcoming expo.

The book and expo —only the second exhibition ever by a Black artist at the Gallery— will also be framed by a spectacular three day event, Still Here: Emancipation Celebration, from July 31 to August 3, 2026, in Fredericton, featuring singer Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, writer George Elliott Clarke, filmmaker Sylvia Hamilton, and others, in varied activities from poetry, to theatre, music, New Brunswick history, and art.

During the presentation, Thandiwe McCarthy shared a powerful poem called “The Royal Vow,” about the promise made to Black Loyalists that they would be freed from slavery. His mother, Mary McCarthy-Brandt, also shared two poems, “A Child of Colonialism,” which she wrote years ago, and “The Ones Left to Tell,” a more recent poem.

In the poignant second poem, Mary McCarthy-Brandt writes: “to keep our culture alive, we must speak! (…) we are the ones left to tell.”

Recently hired CEO of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Bernard Doucet welcomed the audience. After taking a picture of the full room, Doucette joyfully said: “everybody gets it,” and added that this event was an “important and timely discussion.” Doucette confirmed that this talk and the ensuing expo would bring a “meaningful opportunity to engage with these histories.”

Sophie M. Lavoie is a member of the NB Media Co-op’s editorial board.