Waterloo Region – Region of Waterloo Museums is pleased to announce the opening of Vintage Black Canada: A Doon Village Introspection. Running from September 20 to December 28, 2025, the exhibit features photographs from the Vintage Black Canada archive curated by Aaron T. Francis.

On display in the Martin House at Doon Heritage Village, the exhibit looks at how different communities, including Black Canadians, created a sense of home in Waterloo Region. By showing Black culture inside a traditional Mennonite house, the exhibit teaches visitors about local immigration stories and what these different histories have in common.

“Like this exhibit, our Regional museums are making space to hear forgotten stories and bring to light the history that has helped shape our dynamic community,” said Karen Redman, Chair of the Region of Waterloo. “Vintage Black Canada: A Doon Village Introspection is inviting new stories to live side by side with the ones we’ve always known. This is the first of many stories which will come to light in Doon Heritage Village as part of the upcoming reopening. We are a community shaped by many histories, it’s time to hear them all.”

Vintage Black Canada: A Doon Village Introspection is curated by Aaron T. Francis, a Balsillie School of International Affairs doctoral student at the University of Waterloo. Aaron's research focuses on the role of art and culture on Jamaican foreign policy. Aaron is also a community archivist, curator and the founder of Vintage Black Canada.

“If you’ve ever visited a place of historical significance and felt it echo your own family’s story this experience is for you," said Curator Aaron T. Francis. "This project asks visitors to explore how different cultures navigated migration, adaptation, and the building of community in Waterloo Region. Whether Mennonite families in the 19th century or Caribbean immigrants in the 20th, many parallels exist."

Founded in 2019, Vintage Black Canada is an archive that documents the transnational modern history of the African Diaspora in Canada.  Art, video and photographs from this initiative have been shown in the Art Gallery of Ontario (2021, 2023), University of Waterloo Art Gallery (2023), and Maclean's magazine (2023). It's also been featured in several award-winning documentaries including CBC’s Black Life: Untold Stories (2023) and CityTV’s Black Community Mixtapes (2023). 

Vintage Black Canada: A Doon Village Introspection opens Saturday, September 20, 2025. The exhibit is part of the free events offered during Doors Open Waterloo Region. The exhibit will then be open for various Sundays from 1 to 3:30 p.m. starting September 28. Please see website for specific dates.

To learn more about this exhibit, visit the Region of Waterloo Museums webpage.

About the Region of Waterloo Museums

The Region of Waterloo Museums & Archives operates four experiential sites throughout Waterloo Region. Together, Doon Heritage Village, Schneider Haus, McDougall Cottage and the Ken Seiling Waterloo Region Museum tell stories from this region through educational and public programming, events, and a collection of over 60,000 cultural belongings.

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