Reconstruct(ing) a Hidden History: Black Deaf Canadian Relat(ing) Identity

Abstract

Black Deaf Canadians are under-represented in every facet of life. Black Deaf Canadian excellence, history, culture, and language are under-documented and under-reported. Where are we in history? Where are we now? Why are we not being documented? Black Deaf Canada was established to address these long-standing issues and went on to create an independent research team that led a project called “Black Deaf History in Canada”. This article provides an early account of how the community-based research team conducted a relationship-building practice prior to and during a three-week research trip. Black Deaf Canadians’ relat(ing) experience in history has inspired us to fight for inclusivity.

Introduction to the Special Issue “Rethinking Artful Politics: Bodies of Difference Remaking Body Worlds”

“…This can be, for example, at a d/Deaf-centred jam session dinner table where improvisation brings into being a desired, cripped collective assemblage (Jones et al 2023). Possibilities can also emerge through a social media call that brings together Black Deaf persons who then collectively and inaugurally materialize Black Deaf Canadian identities using communitybased research to (re)discover and affirm "relating" Black Deaf persons in Canada (Rouse et al 2023). When neoliberal timescapes become crushing, crip agency enacts crip time and possibilities that bring together work, care, and community to create workable and caring spaces (Chazan 2023).…”