“Sounds and the city; A new oral history museum gives voice — literally — to the immigrants who built Toronto” Special to The Globe and Mail, Nov. 6, 2004, M6

 

Twenty years after Dora Nipp first interviewed Jean Lumb, the first Chinese-Canadian woman to receive the Order of Canada, Ms. Lumb's voice is echoing off the walls of the new Oral History Museum as clear as a bell.

 

And her story is just as poignant and significant as it must have seemed 20 years ago.

 

Ms. Lumb told Ms. Nipp, who was then writing her master's thesis on Chinese-Canadian women, that growing up in British Columbia and moving to Toronto had not been easy. She had no right to vote, had attended segregated schools and faced frequent discrimination. But the gutsy Ms. Lumb was not fazed. It was her fight to save Toronto's old Chinatown that earned her the Order of Canada.

 

Now, interested visitors can hear her story with their own ears.

 

This is no ordinary museum: At the click of a computer mouse, the collection — the stories of immigrants who built Toronto — comes alive. Across the room from where an interactive computer station is playing a digital recording of Ms. Lumb's story comes the disembodied voice of an Italian Canadian who immigrated to Toronto, recounting his experiences as a boy in wartime Italy.

 

The museum, created by the Multicultural History Society of Ontario and housed in a converted mansion on Queen's Park Crescent belonging to the University of Toronto, opened its doors to the public last month.

 

Visitors can walk in the footsteps of Chinese-born Ms. Lumb, Italian native Fortunato Rao and Selwyn (Nip) Davis of Trinidad and Tobago by listening to their stories, asking questions and viewing multimedia presentations and photographs at four “imagination stations.” The theme is community-building and immigrant adaptation in late 20th-century Toronto.

 

The work is far from done. A fifth wheelchair-accessible station is in the process of being built and the society's goal is to convert as many audiotapes as possible to have the museum's collection fully operational by 2006 or 2007.

 

Ms. Nipp, the society's CEO and a human-rights lawyer, says oral history is engaging and interactive where history texts are not.

 

“History texts are one or two degrees removed,” she says. “When you can hear the voices of people who have actually lived through those experiences, you hear and therefore feel the passion, the anger, the sorrow, the joy — all the kinds of emotions that don't jump off the page.”

 

Ms. Nipp is a former student of University of Toronto professor Robert Harney, who founded the society in 1976.

 

It was under Prof. Harney's tutelage and guidance that the stories of Toronto immigrants were first gathered and recorded for 30-odd years.

 

Prof. Harney taught his students that research should go beyond what is on paper. Ms. Nipp explains his approach: “Don't rely just on paper documents, because if you do, you are going to exclude not only a number of communities but you are going to miss the complete history — because much of the history has not been recorded” on paper.

 

Researchers, students and interested community members amassed almost 9,000 hours worth of audiotape in 60 different languages for the society. They received some training, then went out into the community. But Ms. Nipp realized that the recordings they gathered would deteriorate unless the society took action to protect them.

 

So under her leadership, a team of volunteers and professionals converted the audiotapes to digital recordings.

 

The audiotapes are the history of all Torontonians — new immigrants and fourth-generation Canadians included.

 

She says she tells visitors, “It doesn't matter what point in time you arrived in Canada or how you came, or whether you came by car, plane or boat — as soon as you step foot in Canada, you inherit the legacy that previous generations have left for you.”

 

 

Ms. Nipp's work has been recognized by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, which recently named her one of five “associate laureates” who will each receive $35,000 (U.S.) to continue and develop their initiatives.

 

The money has come at the right time — digitization has been time-consuming and expensive, she says. But it has always been worthwhile.

 

“You have to understand where you came from to know where you are going,” she says, noting that the knowledge she gleaned from her aunts, uncles and heroes such as Ms. Lumb educated her about her roots.

 

“I know the adversity the community has faced. I know what they have done to contribute to development. I walk with my head very high. Nobody can tell me that I don't belong here.”

 

The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 43 Queen's Park Cres.