Sylvia Hamilton

Hamilton’s documentary practice is marked by a focus on research and storytelling. She conducts her own primary research in the making of her films. In her work she draws on Pierre Nora’s concept of ‘sites of memory’, where meaning is invested in people, locations and events. She explores the inter-generational nature of racism through her use of old photographs juxtaposed with recent footage. While she reveals pains that have elapsed over many generations and raises awareness of discrimination that still exists today, her films maintain a positive tone. She stresses, “where there is sadness in these stories, there is also great resilience.” This notion is reflected by her choice in music. For example, in her documentary, The Little Black Schoolhouse, composer Joe Sealy’s upbeat jazz score conducts the mood, inducing a sense of compassion and hope rather than pity or despair. A colleague and fellow activist Pat Kipping comments on Hamilton’s ability to shift local, national and international perspectives on Nova Scotia. She remarks, “If they look at Sylvia’s films…they can’t see Nova Scotia as just New Scotland. They have to see it as a place that’s been built by many different peoples, especially Black Nova Scotians – a community that has been successfully made invisible by systemic racism for 300 years.” Her works function to tackle historical amnesia and shed light upon the persistent “colour line," a term used to illustrate the violent fissure between races made through centuries of colonialism. Scholars who have written about her work include Brianne Howard and Sarah Smith; Shana McGuire and Darrell Varga; and Sharon Morgan Beckford. Of her work Morgan Beckford writes: “Hamilton's cultural intervention into multicultural discourses unearths a paradox at the nexus of culture and democracy and social justice: while cultural and artistic intervention proves that multiculturalism enables inclusion of diversity, it paradoxically reveals the limits of multiculturalism in facilitating the conversion of that success into the kind of justice that enables social mobility of all groups, specifically blacks.”

Essays/articles: • “Godmother” in Untying the Apron: Daughters remember Mothers of the 1950s. (Toronto: Guernica, 2013). • “When and Where I enter: History, Film and Memory,” Acadiensis, Volume 41, Number 2, Summer/Autumn 2012. • “Stories From The Little Black School House.” In Cultivating Canada: Reconciliation Through The Lens of Cultural Diversity. Edited by Ashok Mathur, Jonathan Dewar and Mike DeGagne. Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation Research Series, 2011. • “Searching for Portia White,” in Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Film and Television in Atlantic Canada, Edited by Darrell Varga (NSCAD), University of Calgary Press, fall 2008. • “Visualizing History and Memory in the African Nova Scotian Community,” in Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora Located in Canada, Edited by David Devine (Dalhousie University), 2007, Halifax. • Entries on Portia White, Richard Preston and Africville, for The Oxford Companion to Canadian History, Oxford University Press, 2005. • “A Daughter’s Journey,” Canadian Woman Studies /les cahiers de la femme, Volume 23, Number 2, Winter 2004. • “Memory Writ Large: Film and Inquiry,” Sylvia Hamilton with Lorri Neilsen, in Provoked by Art: Theorizing Arts – Informed Inquiry, Backalong Books and The Centre for Arts-Informed Research - 2004. • “What’s History Got To Do With It?“ Background Paper, commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage, Ottawa, March 2003. • We’re Rooted Here and They Can’t Pull Us Up: Essays in African Canadian Women’s History. (University of Toronto Press, 1994). Poetry appears in: • West Coast Line • The Dalhousie Review • Fireweed • To Find Us: Words and Images of Halifax • The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry • Temba Tupu:The Africana Woman’s Poetic Self-Portrait

Her films have been broadcast on CBC, TVO, the Knowledge Channel and throughout schools and universities across the country. She has been honoured with numerous awards for her work, including a Gemini Award, the Japan Broadcasting Corporation’s Maeda Prize, the Progress Women of Excellence Award for Arts and Culture, the CBC Television Pioneer Award, and Nova Scotia's Portia White Prize for Excellence. She has presented her films and lectured widely in Canada, the United States, Europe, Africa and Jamaica. • National Film Board Kathleen Shannon Documentary Award (Black Mother Black Daughter), Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival (1990) • Rex Tasker Award for Best Atlantic Canadian Documentary (Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia), Atlantic Film Festival (1993) • Canada Award (Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia), Gemini Award (1994) • Association for Media and Technology in Education Festival Award of Excellence (1994) • Maeda Prize, 21st Japan Prize, International Educational Program Contest, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (1994) • CTV Fellowship Award, Banff Television Festival (1995) • Honorary Doctor of Letters, Saint Mary’s University (1995) • Race Unity Award, Baha'i Community of Canada (1996) • Halifax Progress Women of Excellence Award, Arts and Culture Category (1996) • Honorary Doctor of Laws, Dalhousie University (2001) • Honorary Diploma, Nova Scotia Community College (2002) • Nova Scotia Portia White Prize (2003) • Silver Prize (Little Black Schoolhouse), Africa World Documentary Film Festival (2009) • Best Film – People's Choice (Little Black Schoolhouse), African Diaspora Film Festival (2009) • Honorary Doctor of Letters, Acadia University (2010) • Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) • Governor General's History Award for Popular Media (2019) • Documentary Organization of Canada's DOC Luminary Award (2019) • Order of Canada (2024)