Lest We Forget

 
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In class we watch a film "Speakers for the Dead" about a lost and forgotten Canadian-African cemetery in Ontario.  There was a variety of comments and opinions surrounding what should be done with the cemetery. Ultimately it was decided that the area should be protected and preserved as a historical site. 
The community who live there now are predominately of European descent and the fact that the first settlers of the area were of African descent was hushed up and locked away in the closet. 
The tombstones had been picked up by the farmer who owned the land in the 1930's and reused as steppin stones, building tools and just thrown into a pile and left to decay. The land was turned into a potato filed and it was not until the 1980s that peole began to take an interest in locating the original cemetery and replacing the tombstones. The people involved were able to locate some of the tombstones with help from anonymous letters and able to display them at the original site.
It seems that this cemetery was forgotten based on racial prejudices of the day. The community didn't seem to want it to be known that there was a African cemetery there, or that some of the townsfolk may be related to them. There was no respect for those who were buried there until people began to ask questions. This is a sad display of what cultural blending and domination has done, and this is not the only case. There are probably many cemeteries that have been plowed over, cemented over and dug up to make room for the domminate and powerful culture. 
Hopefully there will be more discuss with descendents and communities to find other long forgotten cemeteries from past people who originally lived in that area. As the title says, we can not forget the past or its people who helped to create the future.

Here is the link to the film:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0fbINBjb6I