2026 Story submissions

As our province and our country faces tough financial times and a shift towards austerity, there is an increasing need to show the vital role that archives play in preserving our history and protecting democracy. Now is the time to collectively raise our voices and advocate for archives. This week is your opportunity to celebrate the creative ways you speak up and out for your repository and for archives in general.

We received a record-breaking 12 submissions this year! Stories will be added throughout the week, check back every day of AAW to read them all.

Explore the story submissions shared by archives, museums, and libraries all over Ontario, reminding us that we are stronger together! 

Select the links below to quickly navigate to an AAW story:

• Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre
  
• Lakehead University Archives
  
• Middlesex Centre Archives

Making Archives Visible: Exploring Bruce County’s Marine History and Records

Institution: Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre

Story: The Bruce County Archives is marking Archives Awareness Week 2026 with a series of initiatives aimed at increasing public awareness of the Archives’ services and value.

By combining storytelling, scholarly research, behind the scenes access, and free public admission, our Archives Awareness Week outreach focuses on a central goal: making archival work and expertise visible, relevant, and engaging.

Archival Stories as a Gateway to Visibility

To anchor the week’s activities, the Archives is hosting Shipwrecks of Bruce County: Myths and Reality (https://www.brucemuseum.ca/event/shipwrecks-of-bruce-county-myths-and-reality), a public lecture by marine historian and author Patrick Folkes, on Saturday, April 11, 2026.

Folk narratives of shipwrecks, ghost stories, and unexplained events have long captured public imagination along the Lake Huron shoreline. This presentation drew on that interest to demonstrate how archival research separates fact from fiction. Drawing on decades of work with ship registers, maritime records, archaeological reports, photographs, and local accounts, Folkes will explore legendary vessels such as the Griffon, the schooner Explorer, and the supposed ghost of Cove Island.

Crucially, the event will do more than tell compelling stories. It will highlight the value of archival sources and research methods, showing audiences how archivists and historians interrogate evidence, assess provenance, and weigh contradictory records. By centering archival documentation in a popular program, the Archives is demonstrating how records underpin historical interpretation and public memory.

In alignment with the week’s marine theme, the Archives also published a series of blog posts highlighting both stories of local marine history and the types of related records the Archives seeks to document and preserve through its Stories & Artifacts initiative. The featured post, Navigating Bruce County’s Marine Resources, encourages community members to contribute relevant materials, strengthening the archival record of the County’s maritime heritage. (https://www.brucemuseum.ca/collection/navigating-bruce-countys-marine-resources).

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Behind the Scenes Access: Demystifying Archival Work

Public curiosity does not stop at the story, often extending to how archives work. To meet this interest, Archives staff is offering two guided behind the scenes tours of the Archives & Research Room and secure storage areas: one after the event, and another on Friday, April 10, 2026. These tours provide visitors with:

• A practical overview of how archives are organized and preserved, emphasizing the care, expertise, and decision making involved in preserving documentary heritage
• Insight into environmental controls, storage systems, and access protocols
• Opportunities to view original records not regularly on display
• Conversations with archival staff about appraisal, description, and reference services

We expect participants to leave with a deeper appreciation of archival stewardship and the responsibilities archivists hold on behalf of their communities.

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Removing Barriers Through Free Access

Accessibility will be a key pillar of the week’s outreach. Throughout Archives Awareness Week, free admission will be offered to the Archives & Research Room welcoming first time researchers, casual visitors, and returning patrons alike. We hope this approach reinforces the message that archives exist for everyone and ensures that visitors feel supported rather than intimidated.

Demonstrating leadership support, Bruce County Warden Luke Charbonneau recorded a video message in the Archives recognizing Archives Awareness Week, highlighting the free admission initiative, and outlining the range of marine related records preserved and made accessible by the Archives. This message will be shared on social media during Archives Awareness Week.

The Barque Griffon, BCM&CC AX2004.0158.

Archivist Deb Sturdevant leading a behind-the-scenes tour at the Bruce County Archives.

Celebrating Activism at Lakehead University Archives

Institution: Lakehead University Archives, submitted by Sara Janes and dawn unwin

Story: Against war. For workplace safety. In solidarity with Indigenous people. To find community.

It was no difficult decision to mark this year’s Archives Awareness Week by celebrating the records of activist people and groups that we hold at Lakehead University. This display is up on the library’s main floor, visible to everyone coming in to study.

We made an effort to not leave anyone or anything out: the reproductions of documents on display come from 15 different fonds.

Student Activism: Like at any university, student organizing comes and goes in waves. In the 1960s, Lakehead students protested the Vietnam war, and supported their contemporaries leaving the United States. Now, I encounter students demonstrating for Palestine, for continued OSAP, for a livable climate. Their works will be remembered as well.

Injured Workers: Ontario’s Northwest depends economically on many high-risk jobs, in forestry, mining, manufacture, shipping. It’s no wonder that organizing for the rights of people injured at work has been so prominent here, but this is also due to the work of Steve Mantis, who has been an advocate on the provincial, national, and international stages. People permanently disabled because of workplace incidents have often not been fairly compensated, and they have an important voice in the labour movement.

Justice for Grassy Narrows: A chemical plant dumped approximately 9,000 kg of mercury into the English and Wabigoon river systems from 1962 into the 1970s. Now, more than 90% of people in Grassy Narrows have symptoms of mercury poisoning. Fish and other wildlife also have been harmed. The people of Grassy Narrows, and Grand Council Treaty 9, organized in the 1970s against the ongoing contamination, and the efforts of the companies responsible to gloss over the harm they had done and expand operations. 50 years later, the fight for fair compensation, and to prevent further damage, continues. (freegrassy.net)

A Feminist Poet: Gert Beadle, born in 1915, discovered feminism at the age of 60. Meeting with other women and discussing their shared struggles transformed her life. Gert had written from time to time, but in a busy few years she became a published poet, a key contributor to Northern Woman Journal, a mentor to many younger women, and a founder of Thunder Bay’s first shelter for women escaping domestic abuse.

Each of these fights is historic, and each is also of contemporary importance. At Lakehead University Archives, we are proud to continue collecting activist fonds and preserving them for the future.

To learn more about the Records of Activism and Labour at Lakehead University Archives, visit https://libguides.lakeheadu.ca/archives/activism.

Display "Archives Activism" developed by Lakehead University Archives.

'The Argus', the Lakehead University student paper, reports on solidarity actions against the Vietnam war.

Injured workers in Ontario were particularly affected by changes to Worker's Compensation, now WSIB.

"Reed's Greed" refers to the callousness of the industrial polluters despite harms to many.

Gert Beadle, in a photograph taken by friends in the late 1970s.

MCA Celebrates Archives Awareness Week with Annual Heritage Fair

Institution: Middlesex Centre Archives

Story: The Middlesex Centre Archives (MCA) will be hosting its annual Heritage Fair on Saturday, April 11th, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Delaware Community Centre, 2652 Gideon Drive, Delaware, ON. The Fair is held in April to correspond with the provincial Archives Awareness Week which will be celebrated this year from April 7 to 10.

Everyone is invited and admission is free. “We are excited about this year’s participants. We have a great combination of archives, museums, genealogical and historical groups who are all passionate about sharing and celebrating our community’s heritage. What may be the heritage of one person is a learning opportunity for another. I hope that folks will be able to explore and learn something they didn’t already know during their visit,” said Archivist Krista Taylor.

New exhibitors this year include the Strathroy-Caradoc Museum, Home Children Canada and the Presbyterian Church Heritage Centre and the Committee to Establish a Middlesex County Archives - Thames Centre Heritage Working Group. Returning will be some familiar faces, including the Upper Thames Re-enactment Society, London United Empire Loyalist, Tri-County Heritage Club, Komoka Railway Museum and Fanshawe Pioneer Village. The Heritage Fair is an excellent mix of groups to showcase the rich heritage of Middlesex County and neighbouring communities. MCA will have the Archives open to the public during the event. The Archives is located in the Delaware Community Centre.

A presentation by Dan Oatman, a member of Home Children Canada at 2 p.m. will inform many about a lesser-known time in Canadian and English history. “Home Children, sometimes known as Bernardo Boys, were children - both boys and girls - who were taken from poorer areas or workhouses in England and shipped off to Canada,” explains Ms. Taylor. Ms. Taylor continues by saying that “Dan will expand more on who they were in his presentation. But simply, many who left England were under the impression they would come to Canada and work on farms and start a new life, with a farm family, fresh air and opportunity. Unfortunately, the reality was anything but for most of them. In recent years, more research has been done through genealogy to try and reconnect families that were torn apart through this Victorian and Edwardian social welfare scheme. One thing we’ve learned at MCA is that many men who joined up early in the Great War were Home Children. Going to war gave them an escape from the reality of life in Canada and for some, a chance to return to England to find anyone left in their family.”

Also going on during the Heritage Fair will be the Heritage Hunters activity for kids. A lunch booth provided by the South Lobo Women’s Institute will be on-site, with coffee, cold beverages, sandwiches, soup and pie. MCA’s annual used book sale, featuring local history books, Canadian history, and genealogical resources will also be active! Cash only please for both the lunch room and book table.

MCA will also be kicking off it’s annual fundraising raffle. Prizes will be on-site to view. MCA has an annual budget of about $60,000 and fundraising is a large part of MCA’s income.

For more information, visit Middlesex Centre Archives on Facebook or email at middlesexcentrearchives@gmail.com. Visit MCA online at https://middlesexcentrearchive.ca/events.

Poster for the Middlesex Centre Archives Heritage Fair on Saturday, April, 11, 2026 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, at the Delaware Community Centre, with Free Admission.