Truro to officially name park that honours African Nova Scotian women

The Town of Truro is continuing a naming contest for a park that some, including a project partner, thought had already been named.

In May, the 5,380-square-foot parcel of land at the corner of Ford and Robie streets was referred to as Reparations Park during a ribbon-cutting ceremony, as reported by the Truro News and the Halifax Examiner.

But an official name isn’t expected to be announced until February, after a town committee considers submissions from the public through a contest that began earlier this month.

The Nova Scotia Women’s History Society, which initiated the park project in 2019, met with town officials Monday to clear up some of the confusion.

Society chair Anna Marie Lane Jonah said she had known town council would be responsible for proclaiming a park name but hadn’t realized the town was going to solicit suggestions from the public through the contest.

“What I said repeatedly at the meeting is I really wish we had had this meeting last spring,” Lane Jonah said in an interview Monday.

“I did not know until the [online] contest was announced, as I would have said that’s a really terrible way to go about it.”

Michael Dolter, Truro’s chief administrative officer, said the town told the society it would follow a process similar to the one used when the former Truro Amateur Athletic Club (TAAC) grounds were renamed the No. 2 Construction Battalion Athletic Facility in November.

“The Town was very conscious of ensuring that the local Community was engaged,” he said in a statement Monday.

“Unfortunately there were some delays in getting the process underway and in hindsight we should have reached out to the Society prior to the announcement of the naming contest to make them aware.”

Meeting ended positively

Truro Mayor Cathy Hinton said Monday’s meeting ended on a positive note. Lane Jonah agreed, though she said she was frustrated that communication issues had led to the controversy over the name.

Hinton said in an interview Monday that she hadn’t wanted to publicly embarrass people by correcting them when the Reparations Park name was used at the ribbon cutting and a flag-raising ceremony.

“I had made my comments well known to a couple individuals that had been using that name,” she said.

“That was not the name of the park. It had to go through a naming procedure to involve the whole African Nova Scotian community. So, that was the issue. If people choose not to listen, that’s totally up to them.”

The town has spent approximately $100,000 on the park project, which also included a new walkway installation.

Vera Clyke, an organist at Zion Baptist Church in Truro for 71 years, is featured on a park monument in a painting by Bruce Wood. The parcel was once home to a wooden sculpture of the Amherst-born musician who died in 1998. 

There is also a dedication to four Black female educators — Martha Eleanor Jones, Willena Beatrice (Corbin Gabriel) Jones, Donna Lee Byard Sealey and Ann Michelle (Shelley) MacLean — painted by Letitia Fraser.

Hinton said over 40 names have been suggested by the public since the naming contest opened.

Truro’s African Nova Scotia community strategy committee is tasked with reviewing submissions and making a recommendation to council after the contest closes on Jan. 9.

“I haven’t seen any of the names yet, although I have heard from many folks that Reparations Park is one of the names that had been submitted by many folks,” said Andrew Paris, co-chair of the committee. “We are going to work to narrow that down to three or four names.”

Lane Jonah said there is a lot of community support for Reparations Park.

“The park is a really good thing. How we got in this tangle of disagreement and animosity about this detail, about the park, it’s saddening. And it was definitely very frustrating. But that can’t be the focus of this whole exercise,” she said.

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