Just outside the doors of the Exchange Met School in Winnipeg, are stories most people walk past every day without realizing it. For teachers Kathryn Laframboise and Jonathan McPhail, helping students uncover those stories led to a powerful school-wide project, and national recognition through the 2025 Governor General\u2019s History Award for Excellence in Teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project began with a fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was a fire on Main Street [next] to a pretty important building that was connected to Canada\u2019s first Black labour union for the railway porters,\u201d Laframboise explains. The Craig Block building was nearly lost and what surprised their students most was how little attention it received, and that the building tied to Black history held no heritage status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The incident helped spark class conversations about missing histories. \u201cIf this was such an important piece of Canadian history that we didn’t know about and there is no plaque, and there is no recognition – what else are we missing?\u201d McPhail says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From there, Grade 10 students began researching local sites connected to Black history in Winnipeg\u2019s Exchange District. The idea quickly became a school- wide project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students co-created lesson plans focused on six local stories – from slavery in the fur trade to Blackface in theatre, hotel segregation, and Black excellence in sports and politics. Other grades then expanded on the research and wrote scripts for a place-based walking tour, which includes sites such as Scots Monument, Burton Cummings Theatre, and Winnipeg City Hall where Deputy Mayor and Councillor Markus Chambers made history in 2018 as Winnipeg\u2019s first Black city councillor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To guide their work, students connected with community partners including Manitoba\u2019s Black History Month Celebration Committee, Sport Manitoba, and the Black-Manitobans Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal was to try to make genuine relationships and connections in a non extractive way. \u201cSomething we asked our kids was what do you see represented in our community? It’s that reflection on whose voices are present, why are those voices present? And whose voices are missing?\u201d Laframboise says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project also revealed how fragile our shared history can be and how easily stories can be erased, especially when communities are destroyed or displaced. \u201cThere is very little information about the historic Black owned businesses and homes. When you lose the structure, that’s the beginning of losing the whole story,\u201d McPhail explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the walking tour, students created a collaborative feather artwork symbolizing hope and collective commitment to remembering and honoring Black histories in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Receiving the Governor General\u2019s History Award was very humbling for the two teachers. \u201cWe were very honoured,\u201d says Laframboise, adding that the recognition really belongs to the students. For McPhail, a highlight was meeting other educators and historians from across Canada and seeing work that was \u201cempowering, passion filled, and hope filled, that didn\u2019t shy away from the hard stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laframboise and McPhail encourage other teachers to explore history with their students. \u201cThere’s guaranteed history around every neighborhood,\u201d says Laframboise, adding the project is far from complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have tried to really emphasize that this isn’t just in the past. We still live within complex systems, and what are each of our roles within that? It’s messy and it’s not perfect, but it’s our job as teachers to help our students wrestle with our past, and our future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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