Our Lives: Canada's First Black Women's Newspaper

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Our Lives: Canada's First Black Women's Newspaper
Founder(s)Carol Allain

Dionne Brand

Linda Carty

Afua Cooper

Faith Nolan
PublisherThe Black Women's Collective
Circulation LocationCanada
Founded1986
Political alignmentBlack Feminist
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publication1989
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
Free online archiveshttps://riseupfeministarchive.ca/publications/our-lives-canadas-first-black-womens-newspaper/

Our Lives: Canada’s First Black Women’s Newspaper was the first newspaper in Canada written by and about Black women.[1] Founded in 1986 by the Black Women’s Collective, Our Lives sought to represent the lives, achievements, and struggles of Black women in Canada.[2]

The Black Press and Anti-Black Racism in Print

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Black activism in print in Canada began with anti-enslavement publications such as the Provincial Freeman that sought to counter the anti-Black racism prevalent in the Canadian press.[3] Our Lives cultivated this history by “create[ing] a free space, a place where we can talk as sisters”, and analyze their experiences with institutional racism, gendered racism, and anti-Black violence.[4] This dedication to Black women representation was part of a broader movement in the 1980s that centered "Black women's experiences, writings, and cultural production...to validate the lives of these women...and ...make them visible to the wider public".[5]

Racial Uplift and Black Consciousness

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Our Lives was situated in a period of heightened racial unrest that produced actions like the Sir George Williams and Yonge Street Uprisings.[6] They spoke, and contributed, to this moment by celebrating Black womanhood and by honouring Black women revolutionaries such as Marie Joseph Angelique, Harriet Tubman, Anne Cools, etc.[7]


  1. ^ "Our Lives: Canada's First Black Women's Newspaper – Rise Up! Feminist Digital Archive". riseupfeministarchive.ca. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  2. ^ Lobo, Rachel (2019). ""Archive as Prefigurative Space: Our Lives and Black Feminism in Canada."". Archivaria. 87: 68–86 – via ProQuest.
  3. ^ Silverman, Jason; Bellavance, Marcel; Rudin, Ronald (1984-12-01). "'We Shall Be Heard!"; The Development of the Fugitive Slave Press in Canada". Canadian Historical Review. 65 (4): 54–563. doi:10.3138/chr-065-notes. ISSN 0008-3755 – via Project Muse.
  4. ^ "Our Lives – Vol. 2, Issue 1 – March/April 1987 – Rise Up! Feminist Digital Archive". riseupfeministarchive.ca. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  5. ^ Wallace, Belinda Deneen (2020). "Our Lives: Scribal Activism, Intimacy, and Black Lesbian Visibility in 1980s Canada". Journal of Canadian Studies. 54 (2): 334–359 – via University of Toronto Press.
  6. ^ Brand, Dionne (1998). "Notes for Writing Thru Race". Bread out of Stone. Toronto: Vintage Canada.
  7. ^ "Our Lives – Vol. 2, Issue 1 – March/April 1987 – Rise Up! Feminist Digital Archive". riseupfeministarchive.ca. Retrieved 2023-03-27.