Public Art piece created by artist Georgia Fullerton
The Way Gone
Made Clear
Wagon: a four-wheeled vehicle used to carry heavy loads
Georgia Fullerton is a local professional artist, arts educator, a graduate of the CREATE Institute's Expressive Arts Therapy program and founder of the Durham Black Artists' Collective. She is the first Black practicing artist to sit on the board of directors of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and the first Black woman to chair the Acquisition and Collection Management Committee of the gallery. Her art is held in public and private collections in Canada, United States, Australia and the Caribbean.
The artist has chosen to weave together the times of the rebellion for enslaved and free Blacks in Canada with her own lived experience. As a Black woman, arts educator, and therapeutic arts professional, Georgia uses ‘The Way Gone Made Clear’ to show the promises and sufferings that Black people experienced in this country. Mimicking colourful stain glass, this vehicle of change is used to express triumph over trauma, and education over ignorance and racialized historical teachings. It showcases the value that Blacks in Durham Region and throughout Ontario have brought and continue to bring to communities.
This wagon was originally from Peterborough. It was deaccessioned from the Peterborough Museum and Archives and acquired by the Pickering Museum Village to be reborn as this art piece. The wagon was cleaned and stabilized by PMV’s Woodwright volunteers.
Upper Backbench - Historical Portraits
Chloe Cooley
1759-1831
Chloe Cooley was a Black woman enslaved in the Niagara Region. In 1793, she was sold to new owners across the river in New York. She was violently tied up and forced into a boat by three men while she screamed and fiercely resisted. Chloe’s resistance served as the catalyst for the creation of the Act Against Slavery later that year. This act made importing slaves into Upper Canada illegal and mandated that children born to slaves to be automatically freed at the age of 25.
Bethune Murray
1899-Unknown
Bethune Murray, the youngest son of Nathaniel Murray, owner of the Murray block in Chatham, Ontario. He was one of the first Blacks in the Chatham area to receive the A.T.C.A. (a music degree) from Toronto Conservatory of Music and he was also an artist. When Bethune moved to Chicago, he formed a short-lived band called The Canadian Ginger Snaps. He had a successful solo Jazz career and was a song writer.
Bromley Armstrong
1926-2018
Bromley Lloyd Armstrong, a Canadian civil rights leader and labour activist, was best known for his part in the 1954 National Unity Association sit-ins in Dresden, Ontario. Activists like Bromley sat in Dresden restaurants while angry owners violently denied Black and other racialized patrons’ service. The sit-ins led to the racist restaurant owners being charged and convicted of discrimination. Acts like these would lead to Canada’s first anti-discrimination laws.
Mary Ann Shadd
1823-1893
Mary Ann Shadd was an American abolitionist, and teacher born to free parents who opened and ran a school for Black students in Chatham, Ontario. She was the first Black female in North America to own and publish a newspaper, called The Provincial Freeman. The paper was started in 1853 and later published out of the town of Chatham.
Josiah Henson
1789-1883
Josiah Henson was a spiritual leader and author, born into enslavement in Maryland, USA. He escaped to Dresden, Upper Canada and founded The Dawn Settlement; a place for enslavement refugees to obtain self-sufficiency. In 1842, he purchased 200 acres of land and opened the British-American Institute, one of Canada’s first trade-labour schools. Josiah was the conductor on the Underground Railroad.
George Chapman
1787-1869
George Chapman is an early known Black settler in Pickering Township. George was likely born enslaved in Virginia, U.S. before fleeing to Upper Canada prior to the 1830s. According to the 1851 census, George is married to Katherine (born 1801), a White Irish Catholic. Living with them in a one-story log shanty is 19-year-old James Chapman and 13-year-old Eliza Campbell. This census record had a column called “Colored Persons, Mulattos or Indian.” Both George and James have a tick next to their names indicating their skin colour. An article on the May 13, 1869 edition of the Whitby Chronicle has an obituary of his tragic death on the railroad track in Pickering. The article says: “He was a native of Virginia and was old enough to remember saddling a horse for his master on which to attend the funeral of George Washington”.
Side rails - Secret Underground Railroad quilt codes & code switch symbols
Quilt codes are debated history. Whether they existed or not, many women were raised to learn how to sew and make quilts. It is believed some quilt patterns are hidden messages to help navigate freedom seekers north. The artist has chosen to digitize 14 of the patterns in black and place her abstracted watercolour imagery behind.
On the other side of the wagon. The artist has reimagined the quilt codes through code-switching. Code-switching is the act of changing our behaviours, including speech, dress, and mannerisms to conform to a different cultural norm than what we might do in our own home. The artist uses visual language that resonates with the cultural and emotional experiences of the Black community.
Find out more about the patterns here 1) Bears Paw - This code meant to follow a mountain trail, out of view, and then follow an actual bear’s trail, which would lead to water and food. Flaming Afropik - Signifying the importance of passing on knowledge, history, and resilience to future generations. 2) Drunkards Path - a warning signal to take a zigzag path to avoid the people sent to recapture the slaves and their tracking dogs. Caged Body - Reflecting the struggle against modern forms of racial confinement and limited opportunities. 3) Broken Dishes - Unsafe, troubled place. Interconnected Circles - Symbolizing the need to bring togetherness in the Black community. 4) Log Cabin - Indicates that it is necessary to seek shelter. Crown Of Greatness - A symbol of recognizing one’s greatness and wearing it with pride. 5) Crossroads - Refers to Cleveland, Ohio, which had many paths to freedom. Displanted African - A truer description of Black people’s presence and the history of Canada’s African Heritage. 6) Sailboat - Tells the slaves to take a sailboat across the Great Lakes to safety. Sacred Safe Space - The Sandwich Church symbolizes a safe or sacred place in the past and today. This is the oldest and still active Black church in Ontario. 7) North Star - Look to the skies to help you navigate the way and prepare to escape and follow the North Star to freedom in Canada. Intergenerational Trauma - Bringing awareness to the continuing impact of past suffering on Black mental health. 8) Five Square Knots - Represents near by Safe houses. Black Self-love - The image of a closed fist with a small heart icon in it’s center, showing that love and self-love are within reach for Black people. 9) Basket - A symbol of the provisions needed for the long journey north. As provisions were the most difficult (and dangerous) commodity, safe houses would display this basket quilt signifying that food could be obtained there. Transformation - A symbol to represent overall strength and freedom while in a state of personal growth. 10) Bow Ties - This was a symbol indicating that it was necessary to travel in disguise or to change from the clothing of a slave to that of a person of higher status. Bounce Black - Highlights the strength and resilience that is deeply ingrained in the Black community’s history. Overcoming adversity to instill hope. 11) Flying Geese - those who escaped during the spring should follow the direction of the geese returning north for summer. Broken Chains - Symbolizing the ongoing struggle against systemic racism and inequality. 12) Jacob’s Ladder - Black Rose - Represents eternal Black beauty throughout the cycles of one’s life. 13) Monkey Wrench - gather all of the tools that you will need on your journey (including physical, mental, and spiritual tools). Black Unity - An image that represents respect, relationship and realness. Building strength as Black individuals in order to achieve togetherness. 14) Tumbling Blocks - This code tells the slaves to box up their belongings that they want to take with them on their trip on the Underground Railroad. Erasure - The reminder to not abandon Black cultural traditions and customs, but integrate them to develop an informed community.
Wagon bed - "On The Backs Of Blacks"
A digitally designed and printed word collage in the style of a stained-glass window. This multi-coloured text display occupations and skills that Black people held during the 1800s. These skills were integral to building the economy. Within the word collage are names printed in white that represent Black settlers who lived, worked, and raised families in Pickering and other regions that will become Ontario. Some of their histories have been lost or hidden.
Names on the wagon:
George Campbell,
George Chapman,
James Burrill,
George Gumby,
Armenia Manuel,
Moses Goodman,
Catherine Johnson,
Benjamin Ryder, and
Mary Ann Shadd.
At the base of the wagon is the artist’s symbolic image of ‘forced labour’. It’s shown in this artwork as the upper torso of a Black man with the words ‘On The Back of Blacks’. Over the torso is vertical lines that echo stain glass leading, and symbolic prison bars represented as restrictive movement.
Front bench - ‘Know Thyself’
This is the Class of 1910 as they sit in front of School Section #13. The Buxton Mission School is the first school built by fugitive slaves. It had an integrated student population with white and Black students learning together.
Slave Ads - Positioned below the armrests.
Though slavery was illegal in Canada at this time, newspapers still carried advertisements placed by American slavers looking for their escaped slaves. The subscriber of the advertisement promised a monetary reward for those who found and returned the escaped slaves to them. Advertisements like these were published in Canada into the 20th Century.
Sides of backbench - Rebellion Flags
The Patriotes flag during the time of the 1837 Rebellion had different interpretations. Most commonly it was believed to be inspired by the French tricolour flag. The 3 colours shown on the Patriotes Flag have been said to symbolize the Irish (green), French Canadians (white) and the British (red).
One interpretation claimed that the white represented the purity of Canadian motives, green the hope that the King would give justice to Canada in correcting abuses, and red from the British flag as a symbol of loyalty.
Republic of Canada created by William Lyon Mackenzie. The flag is a vertical blue-white-red tricolour, with 2 white stars and a white crescent moon in the blue stripe.
The stars represented Upper and Lower Canada. The crescent moon stood for Hunter Lodge, a secret army of mostly Americans supporting Canadian rebels.
Compartment box- front - No 2 Construction Crest
At the center/front of the compartment box is a photographic gel transfer depicting the crest design for the No. 2 Construction Battalion - the largest Black military unit in Canadian history.
The crest is flanked by 9 inch circular openings, covered with 1/4 inch thick transparent plexiglass that showcase two diorama scenes positioned inside of the length of the compartment box. This design represents an idea of change by way of how we see things. The artist has chosen to symbolise “seeing colour” as it relates to not skin colour but whether to fight for the red jackets (Loyalists) or the blue jackets (rebels). This is also a play on the old red and blue lens of 3D glasses to help us see the full picture. This is a reimagining of the choices that lie before Blacks enslaved and free.
Red Lens Diorama - A minitature wooden model home is painted in red acrylic and positioned in front of a printed background. The digital print with images modeled in a 3D program showing two replicas of Richard Pierpoint. Above Pierpoint in uniform, is the younger version of him as he might appear growing up in his African birthplace of Senegal (Bondu) in 1744.
Blue Lens Diorama - A handmade, wooden model of a wagon painted blue and positioned in front of a digital print of a settlement scene, created using a 3D print program.
Sides of compartment box
‘Music as a Source of Community Strength’
Loyalist Snare Drum Hand painted using acrylic paints. The snare drum in particular began to be used in 13th Century Europe to rally troops, and to demoralize the enemy. During the 1837 Rebellion many enslaved blacks who fought as soldiers in segregated Black only companies as well as alongside white soldiers were also segregated and relegated to servile positions such as personal servants, waggoners, artificers and drummers. The image of the snare drum is here to identify the differences in it’s use and meaning compared to the double-edged drum from Ghana Africa. These early snare drums known as Tabor were designed with two heads that made two distinct sounds.
Double-edged Drum Handpainted in acrylic. This African drum known as a ‘double-edged’ drum, was made by the Akan people of present-day Ghana, and brought to America on a slave ship. It’s use by the artist represents the drum as a means of identity, communication and declaration of war. The carved wood is from the cordia africana, a tree from West Africa, and the deer skin is North American. The Akan Drum was likely used in the practice known as ‘dancing the slaves’. Slave ship doctors believed nostalgic melancholy was the cause of diseases and recommended dancing as an antidote. Thus, the same drum which beat for subjugation could beat for rebellion. Slavers manipulated the culturally vital African Drum to oppress black slaves through dance. Therein lies the double-edged use of this instrument.
Lower backbench - ‘Knowledge, Land and Love’
Hand-painted using acrylic paints. The imagery symbolises Knowledge, Land and Love. This image is an
expression of nature, relationship and self-knowledge as meaningful resources to Black individuals and
communities in the past and today.
Back flap - Displanted
Hand-painted, acrylic word graphic designed in a stained glass style. The word ‘Displanted’ is embedded within the artwork, applied as a monochromatic graphite wash. Within the word are elements such as agricultural tools, chain links, uniform of the Loyalist ‘red coats’ and an African tree, known as the Baobab or upside-down tree. At the right end of the artwork are several military tents that housed members of the No. 2 Construction Black Battalion (1916-1920).
To the left of the panel stands a Black soldier carrying an injured soldier. Black militiamen served in the Upper Canada Rebellion, and were kept on strength until 1850 in roles such as construction, patrolling of frontiers and as aids to the civil power.
* ‘Displant’ Meaning: To remove anything from where it has been planted or placed; to drive one from one’s home.