Sylvia Hamilton

Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, poet, and artist. Based in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, her work explores the lives and experiences of people of African descent. Her special focus is on African Nova Scotians, and especially women. In particular, her work takes the form of documentary films, writing, public presentations, teaching, mentoring, extensive volunteer work and community involvement. She has uncovered stories of struggles and contributions of African Canadians and introduced them to mainstream audiences. Through her work, she exposes the roots and the presence of systemic racism in Canada. She aims to provide opportunities for Black and Indigenous youth through education and empowerment.

Personal life Hamilton grew up in Beechville, a community founded by the Black Refugees from the War of 1812, located west of Halifax, Nova Scotia. In this non-segregated school, Hamilton experienced what she called a “very alien environment.” Hamilton is the co-creator of the New Initiatives in Film (NIF) Program that was based the National Film Board of Canada’s Studio D; it was a program providing opportunities for women of colour and First Nations female filmmakers to create films.

She was a Trudeau Foundation Mentor in 2008, held a Distinguished Chair (Nancy's Chair) in Women's Studies at Mount St Vincent University, was Chair of the Women in Media Foundation,

Her poetry collection Tender was shortlisted for the 2023 Pat Lowther Award.

In October 2023, she was appointed a member of the Order of Nova Scotia for contributions to preserving the experiences of African Nova Scotians.

The Little Black Schoolhouse (2007)

The Little Black School House is a documentary film written, directed, produced and distributed by Hamilton through her company Maroon Films Inc. The film reveals the little-known history of segregation in Ontarian and Nova Scotian schools. As detailed in the film, segregated elementary schools existed in Nova Scotia and Ontario because the education legislation in both provinces allowed for the set up of separate all-Black schools. In Nova Scotia, the legislation changed in 1954 to eliminate segregation while in Ontario it remained on the books until 1964. While most schools closed in Nova Scotia, the very last school closed in 1983. These laws reinforced geographic segregation creating Black and white Black school districts. In Ontario, the last segregated school closed in 1965. She explores the inter-generational nature of racism through her use of old photographs juxtaposed with recent footage.

While she reveals pains that have elapsed over many generations and raises awareness of discrimination that still exists today, her films maintain a positive tone. She stresses, “where there is sadness in these stories, there is also great resilience.” a term used to illustrate the violent fissure between races made through centuries of colonialism. Scholars who have written about her work include Brianne Howard and Sarah Smith; Shana McGuire and Darrell Varga; and Sharon Morgan Beckford. Of her work Morgan Beckford writes: “Hamilton's cultural intervention into multicultural discourses unearths a paradox at the nexus of culture and democracy and social justice: while cultural and artistic intervention proves that multiculturalism enables inclusion of diversity, it paradoxically reveals the limits of multiculturalism in facilitating the conversion of that success into the kind of justice that enables social mobility of all groups, specifically blacks.”

Filmography Black Mother Black Daughter (1989) Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia (1992) Portia White: Think on Me (2000) The Little Black School House (2007) Making Movie History: Sylvia Hamilton (2014)

Exhibitions October 17-December 1, 2013. Excavation: A Site of Memory, Home/Land (with Wilma Needham) Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, NS.

Selected publications Essays/articles:

“Godmother” in Untying the Apron: Daughters remember Mothers of the 1950s. (Toronto: Guernica, 2013). “When and Where I enter: History, Film and Memory,” Acadiensis, Volume 41, Number 2, Summer/Autumn 2012. “Stories From The Little Black School House.” In Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation Through The Lens of Cultural Diversity. Edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar and Mike DeGagne. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation Research Series, 2011. “Searching for Portia White,” in Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Film and Television in Atlantic Canada, Edited by Darrell Varga (NSCAD), University of Calgary Press, fall 2008. “Visualizing History and Memory in the African Nova Scotian Community,” in Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora Located in Canada, Edited by David Devine (Dalhousie University), 2007, Halifax. Entries on Portia White, Richard Preston and Africville, for The Oxford Companion to Canadian History, Oxford University Press, 2005. “A Daughter’s Journey,” Canadian Woman Studies /les cahiers de la femme, Volume 23, Number 2, Winter 2004. “Memory Writ Large: Film and Inquiry,” Sylvia Hamilton with Lorri Neilsen, in Provoked by Art: Theorizing Arts – Informed Inquiry, Backalong Books and The Centre for Arts-Informed Research - 2004. “What’s History Got To Do With It?“ Background Paper, commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, March 2003. We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History. (University of Toronto Press, 1994).

Poetry appears in:

West Coast Line The Dalhousie Review Fireweed To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry Temba Tupu:The Africana Woman’s Poetic Self-Portrait

Awards and recognition Her films have been broadcast on CBC, TVO, the Knowledge Channel and throughout schools and universities across the country. She has been honoured with numerous awards for her work, including a Gemini Award, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation’s Maeda Prize, the Progress Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture, the CBC Television Pioneer Award, and Nova Scotia's Portia White Prize for Excellence. She has presented her films and lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Europe, Africa and Jamaica.

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) Governor General's History Award for Popular Media (2019) Documentary Organization of Canada's DOC Luminary Award (2019) Order of Canada (2024)