By Student Liam Corona-Best
In grade 4, I saw my sister doing her exhibition topic, and when I found out what exhibition was, I knew I wanted to explore Black history for my grade 7-exhibition project.
When I first joined the school, from grade 2 to 5, I had problems with
people who were using racial slurs against me. That started to change in grade
6 and now in grade 7, I’ve had no problems because I learned that when you
teach and educate people where oppressive language comes from —slavery and
segregation— and what it means, they tend not to use the language because they
have a better understanding.
This project was important to me because I found that I enjoy history
and I like researching the world. I noticed people turn away from Black
history; they don’t look at Black history, and I felt I needed to help educate
people so that Black history is better known and change can happen.
I worked with our Teacher-Librarian Ms. Farrell who provided many
resources to look into to get as much knowledge as possible. I also had an
outside mentor, Giselle, who works specifically in Black history and First
Nations history. Giselle started by visiting Queen Mary Elementary and now goes
to schools around B.C., specifically teaching B.C.’s Black history, as well as
Canadian Black history past and current.
I want to make sure my presentation is open to all. Initially, my
presentation was more graphic with regard to the racism that occurs across
North America, but I chose to take the more graphic aspects out because I
wanted my presentation to be for everyone. I made a book for the library and a
video presentation using Microsoft Teams for the students in both the primary
and intermediate classes. I shared the entire presentation with my grade 7
class, which included the more extreme information, which I removed from the
general presentation.
I am currently talking to Giselle about going to schools with her to
teach Black history. I also teach something about Black history to someone
every day. I hope to expand to whom I
teach and reach out to as many people as possible with my presentations.
Thank you for your interest in my work.
Liam Corona-Best
To view Liam's presentation, click here.