The documentary is being screened as part of the #ChangeStartsNow summit
A 19th century cowboy known for helping establish the lucrative ranching industry in Alberta, John Ware had a softer side that not many people knew of. In fact, not many people have heard of Ware to begin with.
Ware’s legacy has been surrounded by a myriad of stories that in some cases have made him seem more beast than man.
Award-winning writer Cheryl Foggo has dedicated much of her professional life to researching Ware. Thus, in her documentary John Ware Reclaimed (2020), Foggo set out to introduce the mythical man to the world in a new, reclaimed light.
While showcasing his incredible talents as a rancher, she simultaneously highlights Ware’s humanity and the struggles he faced as a Black man in Canada through a combination of re-enactments, animation, and original music.
The film launched in 2020 as part of the Calgary International Film Festival, and has since been screened at many other festivals. It became available on the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) website in February 2021 for Black History Month.
The documentary first began as a presentation about Ware’s life to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede. That presentation eventually turned into a play, which later morphed into the documentary.
It will be screened on April 30 at 6 p.m. EDT as part of the Guelph Black Heritage Society’s (GBHS) #ChangeStartsNow Anti-Racism Summit, a multi-day virtual summit presenting speakers and events with the goal of preventing and responding to racism in Guelph and Wellington County. This goal is part of the society’s broader #ChangeStartsNow Education Initiative.
The initiative was launched after a peaceful march and protest was held in downtown Guelph this past summer, led by GBHS Executive Director Kween Gerber to raise awareness of and show solidarity for Black lives lost to violence.
“The protest was a starting place for the work that needs to occur to change policy and create opportunities for Black voices to be heard,” GBHS President Denise Francis said.
The educational summit will be an annual event, and the GBHS will be hosting a monthly speaker series throughout the year.
Francis first learned of John Ware Reclaimed about a year ago. “I thought it was an amazing film. It has inspired me to learn more about the Black communities and other racialized communities who helped build and settle Western Canada,” she said.
Ware was born in the Southern U.S. and was likely enslaved before coming to Canada in 1882, when he was part of the first major cattle drive from Texas into Alberta.
In Foggo’s film, she begins with the brutal snowstorm that hit just after this cattle drive. The cowboys abandoned their cattle and raced to the nearest ranch house — all except for Ware. When he didn’t make it back, they went looking for his body. Instead, they found him sitting by a fire with his cattle, safe, while most of the other cattle had died in the cold.
According to Foggo, this was the first time that Ware showed them he was more than his enslaved past, and bigger than the derogatory names they called him.
Another time, when his wife was sick he travelled for what Foggo estimates to have been 18 hours by train, on horseback, and on foot to get her medicine, saving her life.
By the end of the film, it’s clear his narrative has been reshaped. This man, a tough and talented cowboy, was also a loving and dedicated family man and community member.
The documentary also shines a light on many historical inaccuracies.
For instance, it was said that he was referred to by a phrase that supposedly meant “Bad Black White man” among the Blackfoot. Foggo conducted an interview with a Blackfoot speaker that revealed the ways in which mistranslation and misrepresentation by White settlers impacted both Black and Indigenous communities.
This begs the question, what else did we get wrong?
Many stories about Ware were perpetuated by a text that was published in the 1960s, John Ware’s Cow Country, which contains racist stereotypes about Black masculinity.
Foggo said she wanted people to question “what other stories have not been told or have not been told in a way that is honouring the people in those stories?” She also wanted “people’s appetites to be wetted, to [want to] learn more about Black history on the prairies specifically, and to expand their knowledge of Black history in Canada.”
While each region’s history is different from the others, Foggo noted that “they are all linked.”
Foggo grew up on the outskirts of Calgary in the 50s and 60s. Like most other kids in the Prairies, Foggo and her brother Richard loved all things cowboy culture; but, she said, they didn’t see a cowboy who looked like them until they discovered John Ware.
One day, a young Richard went to the Glenbow museum in Calgary, and was “shocked” to see a picture of John Ware, a famous Black cowboy from their area. He raced home to tell his sister what he had found.
“At first it was like I couldn’t really process what he was saying,” Foggo said. “Then once I processed it, it was a very explosive moment. It was a life-changing experience.”
Francis said they decided to screen the documentary for several reasons.
“Growing up in Ontario, when we studied history in school we learned very little about Western Canada,” Francis said.
In fact, she only learned about John Ware and other Black cowboys after visiting Calgary several years ago and seeing an exhibit about him.
“I wanted to learn more and learn why these stories are not widely known all across Canada. The Black community has been in the West for over 100 years, [and] people need to be aware of this,” she said. “We also need to make the community aware of the challenges and racism they faced when they came to Canada from the United States.”
Similarly, Foggo said Black history was absent from historical records and media when she was growing up. Yet she noted that “to know that this history and heritage has been here for so long” is critical to Black Canadians’ sense of identity.
The history is there if teachers choose to share it, but they aren’t part of the mandatory curriculum.
Foggo, like many others, believes it should be.
“Although it could begin around the time of John Ware, and include other Black history that was present in his time here, I think it must also include the decades after John Ware … It has to be holistic and encompassing,” she said. “Canadians have been given such a narrow education about our history, that we actually can’t know who we are today, and we can’t move forward into a positive future without this knowledge.”
Foggo said she loves the work the GBHS does in preserving Black history in our region, and is “very excited to be able to share a bit of Black history from [her] region of the country.”
Francis noted that the summit is open to all members of the community, and because they don’t want financial barriers to stop people from attending, they have a number of “Pay it Forward” passes available. Contact guelphblackheritage@gmail.com for more information.
John Ware Reclaimed can be viewed for free at the NFB website, or on their YouTube channel.
A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 190.5 on April 29, 2021.
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