[00:00:00] Ellington Brown: Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown! 

[00:00:10] Rita Burke: As you know on SpeakUP! International, we have the opportunity to speak with people from all over the world. Today we are back in Canada talking with Elise Harding-Davis, who is an African Canadian Heritage Consultant, one who is the foremost authority, an African Canadian history, Elise is unique!

[00:00:41] Rita Burke: Elisha's unique perception reveals the early presence of. Origin pioneers and freedom fighters in British Canada. Elise retired as the curator of the North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Center. Now, Ms. Davis is an author who has traveled globally lecturing and promoting the history of people of African descent.

[00:01:12] Rita Burke: She's also the recipient of many awards, which she'll tell us about as we have our compensation. And so there's so much more that we need to learn and to hear about our guest today. And so I welcome you today, Elise Harding-Davis to SpeakUP! International!

[00:01:32] Elise Harding-Davis: Thank you so much Rita and Elton. It's a real pleasure to be involved in a program that has international scope and uplifts black history.

[00:01:45] Ellington Brown: I'm just really happy to have you as part of the SpeakUP! International family!

[00:01:54] Elise Harding-Davis: I'm, I'm always ready to, uh, speak up! Uh, um, my passion and lifelong companion has been black history, the history of African Canadian people specifically. 

[00:02:13] Ellington Brown: You were, brought up in Windsor, Ontario. So how did those early experiences in Windsor. Uh, shaped your passion for African Canadian history?

[00:02:28] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, um, I'm a seventh generation Canadian. Parts of my family have been in Canada since 1798. And as a small child at home, we lived with my grandmother until I was 12 years old. Um, I knew my great-grandmother and all these ancestors spoke of. Prideful black history. Then I started school and there was no such instance in the curriculum.

[00:03:05] Elise Harding-Davis: And you know, the teacher would be talking about the war of 1812, and I'd put my hand up and say, well, blacks were in the war of 1812. And he'd say yes, and put your hand down. And I got that right through university. There was never any, any mention of black history other than our enslavement, and I knew better, and so I decided that I would promote it in any way I could. Well, in 1981. The North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Center opened in Amburg, Ontario. The founders were a couple named Mac and Betty Simpson, black people whose families were either here through the Underground Railroad or through their own efforts, and for some unknown reason.

[00:04:09] Elise Harding-Davis: I got to be the curator administrator of that institution for 32 years. It was heaven to me. I loved entering the building every day. We started out hoping the phone would ring, hoping somebody opened the door and within. A 10 year period, we had the African Canadian Heritage Tour Program, which connected with people globally.

[00:04:43] Elise Harding-Davis: We would have buses waiting around the block for people to come into the museum to take tours to understand better about African Canadian history. I've, I've just had the most wonderful life.

[00:05:00] Rita Burke: I certainly hear in the tenor and the tone of your responses that you've had a wonderful life talking about our prideful black history. That's your term that you used at the beginning, and it would be wonderful, I believe, if we could all embrace and internalized that our history should be prideful. So thank you for that.

[00:05:25] Rita Burke: Now you're an African Canadian heritage consultant. Please explain that terminology for me. 

[00:05:33] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, when I was at the museum, I would be consulting with people on different facets of history. Many people didn't know there were blacks in Canada. Many people didn't realize how long we'd been there. Uh, group would come in and they'd ask me.

[00:05:51] Elise Harding-Davis: How long did it take you to get to your work from in Detroit and I said I'm, I'm not from Detroit. I'm from a little community called Harrow and it only takes me about 11 minutes to get to work. That was, boggling to some people. And then people would ask, you know, I, I had the, uh, casino in Windsor call me one time.

[00:06:14] Elise Harding-Davis: They had a young man who had dreadlocks and so they wanted to know were dreadlock, uh. Associated with Rastafarianism and was that actually a religion and could they have him cut those braids off? And I said, no, it is actually religion and you can't cut the braids off anymore than you can cut a, a Sikhs beard or things of that nature.

[00:06:42] Elise Harding-Davis: So it was. A learning experience for the community, but it was also a learning experience for me and I was constantly consulting. I was the executive administrator, the first black at Hotel Do Hospital in Windsor, and I experienced the same sort of consulting situation. And so when I retired, I decided that that was the name I would use.

[00:07:13] Elise Harding-Davis: For how I fit into the world consulting about African heritage and it's worked well in my very last consultation was with Carlos Anthony for a play that he was writing and, um, I suggested to him that I could give him a few little pointers and we together could write a good presentation, and I watched it on the 2nd of March.

[00:07:41] Elise Harding-Davis: Did a wonderful job!

[00:07:44] Ellington Brown: Well, I'm sure that you are very proud of, uh, having the opportunity to work with such a talent and individual, and I am sure I'm going to have to go dig around and see if I can find that, uh, presentation on YouTube. 

[00:08:04] Elise Harding-Davis: And presently they're working with, um, a Canadian production company to do a 10 city tour.

[00:08:14] Elise Harding-Davis: So you might be able to catch it in person. 

[00:08:18] Ellington Brown: Uh, yes. And in fact, if I, if, if I remember correctly, we have been invited, uh, to the next event that he's, he's going to have here in, in Toronto. So. He's going to make sure that we get tickets to so that we can be part of that, uh, event you've been dedicated for like 32 years in, uh, to the North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Center.

[00:08:52] Ellington Brown: So what are some of the most significant milestones you can remember during your tenure there? 

[00:09:00] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, um, when Jean Augustine was acting Prime Minister, she came to the museum and we had a wonderful conversation and tour, and I've known Jean for, oh my goodness, probably over 40 years now. Um, when I tell you that my life has been dedicated to, uh, illuminating and uplifting black history, I.

[00:09:27] Elise Harding-Davis: Even though I don't look at, and the two of you can agree with this, black, don't crack. I'm, I'm well over 70. And so

[00:09:38] Elise Harding-Davis: the museum has been, you know, a little less than half my life in connectivity, but I've, um, taught black studies at St. Clair College, a local community college for, uh, since 1993. And, um, I've taught elder college with the University of Windsor, and I've just, I, I can't explain how nourishing it's been to.

[00:10:12] Elise Harding-Davis: Remember my grandmother telling me, little black girl, you are important. Your history is important. You make sure that other people know that. And so. Even this morning, it's a wonderful thing to be able to speak to peers who understand the struggle that we have been through, and to know that the only way to combat racism and discrimination is to make people understand who and what you are as an individual.

[00:10:52] Elise Harding-Davis: Culturally, I. Make it blend so that it's harmonious and healthy.

[00:11:01] Rita Burke: You have packed a book of wisdom into that one response, and it's really hard to keep up with everything that you say. And my next question was going to have to do with, to do with your teaching of black studies. So who are or were the students that you taught black studies to? 

[00:11:26] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, I taught black studies to students at the college from all over the world.

[00:11:32] Elise Harding-Davis: It's a global, uh, community college, east Indians, Africans, Canadians, black and white, orientals, indigenous people. And then in my travels, I lectured and taught in Ghana, in, uh, China, in Beijing, um, in England, in London. Uh. 30 of the continental United States, the Caribbean, uh, I've been just so extremely fortunate.

[00:12:10] Elise Harding-Davis: And then in December of 2024, I was honored to be a delegate at the United Nations, specifically attached to the anti-discrimination secretariat. And there were 20 of us of African or African descent who, um. We're challenged to speak about what our lives had been like, what kind of discrimination we had experienced, and how we could improve global appreciation and recognition of black people.

[00:12:48] Elise Harding-Davis: I, I, I've just been so fortunate and I will speak up. I have no problem with, uh, stating my opinion, uh, whether it's accepted well or not. And hopefully it is, uh, and usually it has been. But I can take a challenge. 

[00:13:11] Ellington Brown: You, you know, this is one of the things that, uh, SpeakUP! International. We offer, we offer to, to our communities the challenge, if you wanna call it that.

[00:13:25] Ellington Brown: To speak up, to come tell their story, without the fear of retribution. I think a lot of people feel that, you know, um, it's kind of like I, I, um, I just finished writing a, a speech and the title of the speech is Believe in Yourself even when No one else does. And I think this is to where. We as a people have to continue to nourish each other and to help build our confidence so that we do have our voice, or should I say, use the voice that we have in order to promote the growth of our people, uh, physically and mentally.

[00:14:19] Ellington Brown: So tell me a little bit about being the black executive administrator at the, uh, at Grace Hospital, and how did you navigate there as a black woman? 

[00:14:37] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, I'll tell you, it was a real learning curve. I was born at Hotel De Grace Hospital, so it was kind of a full circle process. I applied for the position, um, and a part of the portfolio was dealing with discrimination and racism in a medical setting.

[00:15:01] Elise Harding-Davis: And out of 28 applicants, I had the edge because of my background at the museum. Um, I was also local. You know, sometimes people are hired from out of town who don't know the feeling and the setting of the community. I was very aware of how black, white, francophone. Connection was in Windsor, Ontario. My dad was an electrical contractor, got his training through the VA bill, and my parents ran that business.

[00:15:46] Elise Harding-Davis: And my father wanted to join the Union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in 1947. And they told him the usual fee of $20 yearly would be $200 for him because he was a black man, and my father was willing to pay the fee. They invited him down to the union hall. They locked the doors.

[00:16:14] Elise Harding-Davis: They turned the lights off, and my father was beat with hammers. He sued. In January of 1948, when the, um, suit went to court, the judge, um, dismissed it as frivolous because the IBEW had hired a black person by the name of Carol Kirsty, and so my father had no suit. He never joined the union.

[00:16:46] Elise Harding-Davis: There'd be mornings. He'd go out and his tires were slashed. There'd be jobs, he'd go to finish, and the boxes had been smashed, the wires had been pulled out. Fast forward 30 years, my father trained 14 apprentices. Including a younger sister named Shelly Harding Smith, who became Canada's first black electrician, female and first black master electrician female.

[00:17:21] Elise Harding-Davis: So I had a, a, a, an understanding of how. At home, I could be prideful of who I was and in public I could tell people how prideful I was and my brother had sickle cell anemia and spent many years in Hotel, Do Hospital because of his illness and how some nurses and doctors could be very ignorant and dismissive and hurtful.

[00:17:54] Elise Harding-Davis: And yet some doctors and nurses could be ever so caring and kept my brother alive until he was 39 years of age. So I, I, I had the feeling of what I needed to do and my portfolio was physician and staff complaints.

[00:18:19] Elise Harding-Davis: It was a whirl, a whirlwind of good and bad, and one of the worst situations was a young nurse who had had a scalpel thrown at her in the ER by a physician, not because she did something wrong, but because she looked funny. She was fair skinned with green eyes, and it agitated him. In the middle of the operation, he had an outburst.

[00:18:52] Elise Harding-Davis: And so I was given that situation to investigate. I had 12 investigators from the hospital, from different levels, administrators, clerks, uh, people who worked in the, uh, janitorial area, and we determined. That the physician had been wrong in his actions and in the writeup. I always referred to the nurse as Miss and her last name never by just a first name because she was a dignified, professional individual who had been wronged.

[00:19:40] Elise Harding-Davis: Simply being born the way she was. But she had enough intelligence and talent to be an ER nurse. And so through the writing of the investigation, um, I handed in a 200 page document and the doctor was sanctioned and the nurse was given a written apology by the physician. And these are the sort of things I dealt with when I was at the hospital.

[00:20:14] Elise Harding-Davis: Um,

[00:20:18] Elise Harding-Davis: it, it was really, it was really, uh, an uplifting process towards the end of it, and I retired from there after eight years of very good service. 

[00:20:36] Rita Burke: You told that story with such passion, I could visualize everything that was transpiring as you told that story. As a matter of fact, I worked with a woman who I believe may have been trained or worked at Hotel Duke.

[00:20:54] Rita Burke: Uh, she was a white Canadian woman and we both talked nursing in Peterburg and she had this joke she used to share with us that. Her first black patient, she was trying to wash the color off of his skin. I'll never forget that I, I don't think she fully understood what she was saying at that point. That was way back in the eighties.

[00:21:19] Rita Burke: But that's how I constantly remember my colleague, where she tells us her ignorance and she admitted to it of trying to wash somebody's color of the skin at hotel duty. That's interesting. Yes. So now you contributed something to the teacher's guide. Am I correct? Yes, 

[00:21:41] Elise Harding-Davis: that is correct. 

[00:21:42] Rita Burke: Could you talk, can you talk with us about that, please?

[00:21:45] Elise Harding-Davis: Yeah. Rita, the Greater Essex County District School Board decided to put together a draft teacher's guide after my sister, Shelly, the electrician, was also a school trustee, and she and I submitted an application to the school board. To put together a black curriculum, and that was in 1991. And so my part in it was to do the historic timeline and to write the Francis Peace Letter explaining that this guide was for teachers to A, learn themselves about black history B.

[00:22:37] Elise Harding-Davis: Teach students proper black history and to have the resources to do both. And I wrote from the basic beginning with Matthew DeCosta, right through to Mackay Jean becoming Lieutenant Governor. That's around 2018 was the ending point, and it was fabulous because. I know that, you know, when you're researching to do things even that you think, you know, you'll find out more little facets, more little tidbits that just make it more nourishing and rich.

[00:23:21] Elise Harding-Davis: And so that teacher's guide, um, has been used and this past year, 2024, it became. The accepted Teacher's Guide, it's no longer draft. And from that teacher's guide, we have been working on an Indigenous People's teaching guide. Part of my background, um, is indigenous on my mother's side. Potawatomi, my great grandmother was Potawatomi Full Blood, and I've always been interested in that too.

[00:24:01] Elise Harding-Davis: Um. People see what I look like. I am African Canadian, there's no doubt about it, but the majority of us have more than one genetic makeup. And so I've been with the, um, indigenous council and, um, have a, a wonderful friend named Mona Stone Fish, who is, uh. The three times generational granddaughter of Tecumseh.

[00:24:33] Elise Harding-Davis: And so all of these things are important. You know, Canada has been British in background and we have allowed some francophone, that's why we are a bilingual country. But the indigenous, were here all along. And they have a phenomenal history that many of us could learn from and should learn from. And with the reparations, uh, that have been put in place, this teacher's guide will be very, very important.

[00:25:10] Elise Harding-Davis: But I always get back to the African Canadian and the black studies. Because we are a North American product and we are the ending from Africa, from Mother Africa through the middle passage, through enslavement, through escaping by ourselves or on the Underground Railroad to freedom in Canada. And that freedom is what all immigrants seek when they come to Canada for a life that can be quiet.

[00:25:46] Elise Harding-Davis: And their teacher teaching to their children can be accepted and we can all appreciate each other and speak up about each other and become a more blended society. 

[00:26:07] Ellington Brown: Well, you know, it's amazing that you said that because we, on a lot of levels, we already are a mixed society. You mentioned how, you know, yes.

[00:26:16] Ellington Brown: On the outside here, , we are look black, undeniably, but then there's all these other cultures and you know, that's running through our veins. Even though we are black here, it really, you know, we do have, it's a mix. I mean, how could we not be mixed after going through all of the struggles and, you know, our great-great-great-great, great-great grandmothers and were being raped, you know, unfortunately, so of course there was a mix brought in there.

[00:26:57] Ellington Brown: Maybe we didn't, it was not desirable. But that's, that's what we, that's what we have as of now. So when you talk about being a researcher, I'm wondering when you did , your research I, you mentioned the, the war of 1812, what were some of the most surprising or, uh, under-reported facts that you discovered from your research?

[00:27:29] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, I wrote a book as a. Result of that researching. Um, it's called the Black Thread In The Canadian Tapestry. Um, the black presence in the war of 1812, black men courageously fought. Many of them had been involved in the War of Independence and had come to Canada and were free individuals. And when the war of 1812 happened, some of them wanted to form a militia and a man by the name of Richard Pierpont went to General Brock, our esteemed British hero.

[00:28:22] Elise Harding-Davis: Asked to form that group and he was denied. Uh, they didn't feel it was necessary. It was a white man's confrontation. And a bit later when, uh, they were not doing so well and they needed more military, they agreed to form, uh. Raunchy Rangers, the, the colored core. And these men fought at the, uh, Niagara confrontation where General Brock was killed.

[00:29:03] Elise Harding-Davis: And I always say to my students or people when I'm lecturing, can you imagine Americans coming up the Niagara Escarpment putting their heads over the edge, seeing black men in white uniforms with rifles, they stood out. And can you imagine that some of those white military on the American side were looking down the barrel of a gun held by one of their former slaves?

[00:29:39] Elise Harding-Davis: This core was praised. Because of their courage and because of their ability to fight. Whether it was gorilla warfare or stand up British style, fire your gun. Lower down next row fires. These men were freedom fighters. They were fighting in the war of 1812 because they knew if the United States took us over with their, uh, view of manifest destiny, that they would become slaves again, and some of their children whom were born free, who become slaves.

[00:30:23] Elise Harding-Davis: We had a vested interest. It was a very, very serious situation. Not just to show white men that they, we wanted to fight for their cause. We had our own cause. And in Amburg in January of 1813, a group of men waited out into the Detroit River and captured the Schooner Ann. Those men were black men led by Josiah Henson.

[00:30:54] Elise Harding-Davis: Again, I'm telling you, it was because of their knowledge of what their position would be that they fought courageously and helped to win the war of 1812, and they went on to do that in the rebellion of 1837. 38. We have always been a people who held a hope in our hearts to be free and accepted. Um, it's questionable for either yet.

[00:31:28] Elise Harding-Davis: However, these men, and there were some women as well, because, you know, women supplied food and nourishment and comfort to the troops. Any facet of history that you can think of, there is a facet of black history. And that is where my research has helped me to understand that we have a history that left out makes history incomplete.

[00:32:06] Rita Burke: We're talking with Ms. Elise Harden-Davis, who is passionate and masterful, dare I say, historian, particularly on. Black history. It's interesting that you talks about the war of 1812, because I believe that I saw a play in the fall of last year, at the Harbourfront, and it was called San Cofer, and I'm sure they were talking about black men in the war of 1812.

[00:32:42] Rita Burke: I don't know if you know of that. And that was written by a woman from Alberta. Yes, and we interviewed her on this podcast, so it, it's interesting how the thread connects. So beautiful. So beautiful. Now Elise, you have traveled worldwide to talk about Canadian history, black Canadian, history, tell our audience a little bit about those travel suites.

[00:33:13] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, you know, um, I went to Africa, uh, mentioned earlier to Ghana, and of course as a black person not living on continental Africa, it was some place I always wanted to visit. While we were there, I went with, uh, the Rotary, international Rotary Club and we took computers and books and book markers and things to, um.

[00:33:47] Elise Harding-Davis: Improve health for students. And I had the opportunity to speak to over 2000 students, the different places we visited, and in one place, uh, on a, on a novel, uh, which is not too far from Cape Coast. Um, after we had visited Elmina, the slave Fort. I was chatting with the students about the fact that having done my DNA I was most likely generationally from that area.

[00:34:28] Elise Harding-Davis: And when we visited Elmina, I had a, a crushed feeling. And when we were being toured through, the guide went to two. Doors with bars in them, and he said one door was for the slaves. And if they got into that building into that room, that is where they died. And the other door led to a room where soldiers and people who administrated to the.

[00:35:09] Elise Harding-Davis: Fort were put for short terms to remind them of their place in the whole scheme of things. And so the guy pointed to me and he said, I'd like you to go into the, the door where the slaves were and pointed to another gentleman and said, I'd like you to go into the door where the, um, protectors were. The gentleman started towards the door and I stood there and he said, well, ma'am, I'd like you to enter that room.

[00:35:43] Elise Harding-Davis: I said, I will not enter that room. My people were forcibly taken through the door. Of no return in this building. Therefore, we were never in the room where we died. We did not die. We survived.

[00:36:09] Elise Harding-Davis: And when I went to, um, the second school, they asked the teachers not to come into the room. So the students and I chatted and I talked about the middle passage and the underground railroad, so forth and so on. And after, uh, the lesson, there was a teacher standing outside the door with tears running down his face, and he said to me, ma'am, do white people let you speak like that?

[00:36:41] Elise Harding-Davis: And I laughed. It was an automatic reaction. I said, please forgive me. I'm not laughing at you or your comment, but white people don't allow or disallow me to speak any way at all. Um, I've been raised to be free and to speak up. I've come here to Africa to try to help join us, to help heal the wound of the story that you sold me into slavery.

[00:37:14] Elise Harding-Davis: I was able to escape it, and I'm back to tell you full circle, we are all free. When I went to China. With a group of professionals to help improve with, um, water filtration. We visited a small community of 30 people where they had to, one man carried water up a hill twice a day. With a yoke, with a pail on either side.

[00:37:52] Elise Harding-Davis: So we had a process of using used bicycle wheels that would act like a windmill to pull that water up so they would not have to do that anymore. We also visited Wuhan, which had, at that time, more people in that one city than the whole of Canada, had people. It was from feudal to state of the art and we visited a, it was called the county town, to um, take two pallets of tongue depressors.

[00:38:30] Elise Harding-Davis: 'cause China has no wood itself. They used their wood long ago. And we went to the hospital and we were paraded. They paraded us down the main street of the hall. Town me in front. They had never seen anyone black in real life, and one of the owners of a hardware store invited me in and presented me with two dragons that the Chinese put on their roofs to ward off evil. And I have one here in my kitchen on the highest spot in my living area. Um, I couldn't bring them both home. I had too much in my luggage already. But the guide that we had, we were sitting down after supper one night, relaxing, and his name was Edward.

[00:39:29] Elise Harding-Davis: And he sat down next to me and he said. Ms. Harding Davis, what is it like to live in welfare your whole life? And I said, excuse me, what? What is that? I see on the tv? Black people live in welfare. And I said, well, Edward, we don't, uh, what you are shown on television. Maybe for propaganda reasons or simply because those particular programs are most popular here in China.

[00:40:02] Elise Harding-Davis: But I have never lived in welfare and has told him about my family history, and he was absolutely shocked. But he presented me with three little pearls, one black, one pink and one white, and thanked me for educating him. Those are the kinds of experiences I've had. God chose me to be a catalyst for positive change.

[00:40:32] Elise Harding-Davis: That's what I feel, and that's what I try to do. 

[00:40:38] Ellington Brown: You talked, uh, uh, just briefly about, uh, misconceptions, , and so I wanna know what do you see as the biggest. Misconceptions about African Canadian history and how do you go about addressing those misconceptions? 

[00:41:02] Elise Harding-Davis: First of all, Elton, the biggest misconception is that there is no African Canadian history.

[00:41:10] Elise Harding-Davis: Uh, secondly, the fact that during the whole enslavement movement. Blacks were held responsible for selling ourselves, um, not understanding that they may have been under duress, not understanding that in their culture, enslaving someone was nothing like slavery on the North American continent. And people don't appreciate our intelligence that from Native Africa to Canada, black people brought many, many improvements to the agricultural field that black people are intellectual.

[00:42:15] Elise Harding-Davis: That during the slavery movement, you could have your slaves standing in the room talking about things and not think they would hear and understand what you were saying, or that you could send your black child with your own child as a companion to school and that black child at the back of the room would not learn.

[00:42:43] Elise Harding-Davis: All humans have the capacity to learn. The color of your skin does not denote how and where you will end up in your adult life by the opportunities provided to you. But the biggest thing is that we were denied and are still denied opportunities because of the color of our skin and those are the things I want to right.

[00:43:14] Rita Burke: Two things you said that will tattoo themselves into my system into my DNA. Two things are appreciate, they don't appreciate our intelligence, and for me, the way the world is going generally, I think people are forgetting that we are intelligent people and that's, that's their disadvantage because, we'll, we'll keep on moving forward because of our intelligence.

[00:43:51] Rita Burke: And secondly, you talked about being raised to be free and to speak up. Who raised you to be free and to speak up? 

[00:44:02] Elise Harding-Davis: My parents, my mother and father, my grandparents, um, my community. I was known as the long headed child. One of my best friends was a woman who at the age of 105, when I was five, would sit and chat to me about her family coming to Freedom, walking to Freedom from enslavement.

[00:44:33] Elise Harding-Davis: Of course, I mean that just fed me, um, and other people in the community. I love to be around older people and they would tell me things and they'd say, child, remember someday this piece of information could be important and how well placed mind for just that. Um. I could read what I wanted to. I can remember my father allowing me, me to read a magazine called Soldier of Fortune that dealt with the, uh, aftermath of the Second World War and Nazim and so on and so forth.

[00:45:14] Elise Harding-Davis: And he would sit down, my dad and I would sit down and talk all night on the front porch about his experiences in the war, which is pretty rare. And, um. He'd always say to me, Elise, you've got a brain. You've got an unusual brain. You use that brain, don't you let any man. Talk you down. And when he said that, he didn't mean just the white world.

[00:45:44] Elise Harding-Davis: He meant when I got married, which he never wanted me to do. He didn't think anybody was good enough for me. You be yourself and my grandmother, as I told you earlier, earlier, would call me little black girl. You're beautiful. And take me with her. And she was a midwife and she also knew herbs and things.

[00:46:08] Elise Harding-Davis: And we'd go through the field and pick dandelions and she made, uh, soap at home from pig fat and ashes. And, and I learned. I wanted to learn. I still want to learn. There's no such thing as ever having enough knowledge. 

[00:46:29] Rita Burke: Hear loud and clear. No such thing as having enough knowledge. And I called myself a forever learner.

[00:46:37] Elise Harding-Davis: That's right.

[00:46:37] Rita Burke: I I, I call myself forever learner. Miss Elise Harding-Davis. I could keep on chatting with you. And here's my next question. Tell us three things that you admire, that you particularly like about the woman we are talking with today, please. 

[00:46:58] Elise Harding-Davis: Well, I had to think about that.

[00:47:00] Elise Harding-Davis: Uh, you know, my determination in my opinion is a very good part of my character. I am also, uh, a very inquisitive individual. I want to know as much as I possibly can, and particularly when it deals with facets of black history that are equal to other histories. And I am,

[00:47:35] Elise Harding-Davis: I'm kind and I'm grateful. Um, we haven't talked about my own personal, personal history. I've had three heart attacks and three strokes. God's kept me here for a reason. I'm not going to sit down and I'm not going to shut up. 

[00:47:57] Rita Burke: He's kept you here to talk to us on SpeakUP! International today. Because on SpeakUP! International, we seek to inspire, which you are doing, we seek to inform which you are doing and we seek to educate. And so that's why he kept you here. And I am grateful. I'm very happy about that. Would you tell us what three gems you would like to leave with our listeners today? 

[00:48:29] Rita Burke: Well, as Elton said earlier, we're all somebody.

[00:48:37] Rita Burke: And I have a little process that I deal with on a daily basis. Know what you believe in and believe in what you know. By that I mean we know we are a people of progress and greatness. And we know that we're a people who can be criminals and so on and so forth. Like any other culture, and believe in what you know, when you are grounded in yourself, when you are grounded in the knowledge that you can achieve, you will progress.

[00:49:22] Rita Burke: And when I have any new grandchild, I've had five. I hold them to the sky and I tell them, behold, the only thing greater than yourself.

[00:49:39] Ellington Brown: Wow. Absolutely. Uh, amazing conversation that we've had with you, Elise. Uh, this morning we had an opportunity to talk a little bit about your personal background, your early life, your career and contributions to, uh, African, um, American, uh, heritage, um, education and public engagement, and a little bit about policy influence and I, those topics I felt were extremely important and definitely, uh, relatable.

[00:50:19] Ellington Brown: Uh, in, in this day and age, especially with what's going on between Canada and the U.S. My gosh! It's just, uh, it's a, it's a mess. It's, and so it is very, very important if we as black people are going to be able to survive through all of this, will need our history. So that we are well grounded so that we can get past the, the madness.

[00:50:48] Ellington Brown: So I, I wanna thank you so much for, uh, giving us the time out of your schedule to have this chat and the next book that you decide to write, please let us know. We would love to have an opportunity to talk to you about, about your new accomplishment. 

[00:51:10] Elise Harding-Davis: I would love to Elton at any time. Give me a buzz and I'll be here.

[00:51:17] Elise Harding-Davis: Uh, I want to praise both of you for having such a podcast to give people like myself the opportunity to speak freely about what is important to us and what is important to the rest of the world because as I've said, without black history, history is incomplete and I mean that seriously.  

[00:51:43] Rita Burke: The idea is to archive people's stories so that ultimately the students are searching, they hear people telling their own stories. Rather than someone else telling your story. 

[00:51:57] Elise Harding-Davis: Right. 

[00:51:57] Rita Burke: So I am so grateful to you today for being here with us. You are very, very in demand and important person to Canada, and I feel so honored that you agreed to chapter this today.

[00:52:11] Rita Burke: So thank you, thank you, thank you. 

[00:52:13] Rita Burke: Well, I've made two new friends and I appreciate it!   

[00:52:19] Ellington Brown: Thank you for tuning in to SpeakUP! International. If you wish to contact our guest, Ms. Elise Harding Davis. Please be prepared to submit your name, your email address, and the reason why you wish to contact Ms. Harding Davis at LinkedIn. Ms. Harding Davis has other social media accounts.

[00:52:48] Ellington Brown: You can use to contact her that will be listed in the description section on Spotify and other social media platforms. 

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