CBC Radio’s The Sunday Magazine is a lively, wide-ranging mix of topical long-form conversations, engaging ideas and more. Each week, host Piya Chattopadhyay takes time for deep exploration, but also makes space for surprise, delight and fun.
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The prairies' forgotten history of Black life and culture
26:06
As a child in rural Alberta, Karina Vernon thought she and her sister might be the only Black people in the prairies. Years later, she stumbled across a description of a Black fur trader on the Athabasca River, and her conception of the region was forever changed. Her anthology, The Black Prairie Archives, includes poetry, fiction, farming journals, editorials, and song lyrics from 1790 to the present. She speaks with Piya Chattopadhyay about how different eras of Black migration have shaped the prairies, and how these forgotten histories could reshape our collective understanding of Canada.