Ottawa's pioneering West Indian domestics

 

In Hollywood, at the Academy Awards, Octavia Spencer won Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a 1960s African-American maid in The Help. Here in Ottawa, Joanne Robinson has been collecting video testimonials of the West Indian women who worked as domestics in Ottawa. Beginning in 1955, women arrived in Canada under a federal government recruitment program for domestic servants. Robinson's mom was one of these women. The video project was possible with the support of Jaku Konbit and Black History Ottawa.