daria's blog

The pre-launch of the diversitycapebreton.ca web portal will be taking place this week at Cape Breton University, as part of the Canadian Society for Traditional Music's Curating Ethnomusicology pre-conference workshops. This will be an opportunity for conference participants to give preliminary feedback on the portal and to ask any questions they may have of the diversitycapebreton project team. We invite you to join us for the public launch of the web portal and related workshops in August. Check back soon for details! Here's to a successful pre-launch!

"Jewish Life on Cape Breton Island” has been the title of multiple projects dedicated to research of the same topic. It has been a radio program, a series of sound pieces, and a curated environment at York University. Through local collections created by members of the community, archival research relied not only on the expertise of the archivists at the Beaton Institute, but the expert knowledge of the individuals that collected the materials in the first place.

As a child of Jewish parents, with roots in the community, I knew that the Jewish population on Cape Breton Island was dwindling. However, I had not realised the full extent of the exodus of families to larger cities in Canada, mostly here in Toronto. What was once an island with four synagogues - in Sydney, Whitney Pier, Glace Bay and New Waterford - now has only one in use.

A Diaspora Within The Diaspora

    November 29, 2014 was an overwhelmingly tragic day for members of the Cape Breton Polish community. Their beloved church, standing for over 100 years, was devastated by fire. St Mary’s Polish Parish, built in 1913, was central to the Polish community of Cape Breton, holding weekly mass for over ninety parishioners and organizing many cultural and religious celebrations.