“Where are you from?”
"Here - Moncton.”
“No, where are you really from?”
This series of questions bothered me my entire life until I once snapped and said, “I was born on the second floor of the Moncton hospital, but if you’re trying to ask why I’m Black, my dad is from Senegal.” It is questions like this, the constant judging and scrutiny that Black and other racialized people face, that led Dr. Mary McCarthy, her son Thandiwe McCarthy and photographer Gary Weekes to collaborate on the book Still Here: Preserving Our History.
The book is divided into two sections. The first has an extensive historical timeline of New Brunswick done by Dr. McCarthy, going from 1783 to the Black Lives Matter movement in 2022. The second portion highlights 15 Black legacy families who still have roots in New Brunswick. The families were photographed at gatherings by Weekes, and the entire book has Thandiwe’s poetry interspersed throughout.
