"The Cobourg Public Library's sixth annual 'Share Your Stories' writing contest will honour two dedicated local teachers who died tragically last year.I wonder if the name of Susanna Moodie has ever occurred to anyone in Cobourg to have any value whatsoever. Susanna Moodie, the author of Roughing It In the Bush, and anti-slavery activist, arrived in Canada via Cobourg, and built a homestead just outside the the then-town limits.
The library has created the Broomfield-Kernaghan Award, in memory of Michelle Broomfield, a Grade 2/3 teacher at Baltimore Public School, and Suzanne Kernaghan, a Grade 2 teacher at Cobourg's Terry Fox Public School, who both died in a car accident on Jan. 13, 2009. The award will go to a Grade 1 to 3 student who shows great passion and creativity." MORE
Her value, as an author of early pioneer life, as well as poetry, was enhanced when Canada's greatest woman poet, Margaret Atwood, celebrated her life in the seminal anthology of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie. It's not that the library is without reference material; it has lots.
No matter. Countless town councils ignore her contribution to Canadian culture, as do the schools, and libraries. No street or park or any public acknowledgement of her cultural presence in Cobourg, yet Cobourgers accept that a suburban developer names streets by fiat after his daughters.
Does the library have any kind of award named after Susanna Moodie?
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2 comments:
Point well taken. History might as well be dead for our municipal councillors with architectural heritage close behind. The remarks could equally be applied to the artist Paul Kane who lived in Cobourg for a while in the 19th century. The house he lived in is still standing on King West. Go have a pizza there some time and meditate on our historical amnesia.
Thank you for bringing up the name of Paul Kane. It was outside my periphery, but yes, it applies to him as well. Amnesia. Look at who gets celebrated: bureaucrats and administrators
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