Artists seek to honour Black settlement

A new cultural initiative in Waterloo Region is preparing to bring long overlooked history back into public view. A local organization, Hearts Open For Everyone, known as HOPE, has partnered with the Queen’s Bush Settlement Advisory Committee to commission a large outdoor mural honouring the Black families who built lives in the Queen’s Bush Settlement during the nineteenth century. The groups have issued a call for artists, with a particular interest in those with experience in graffiti work.

Committee member Tracy Lee Johnson said the project aims to correct generations of silence surrounding the early Black community that once flourished across what is now the northwest of Waterloo Region and parts of Guelph. She explained that the mural is intended to serve as a permanent testament rather than a decorative feature. Johnson said the goal is to educate, affirm and make visible a chapter of regional history that many residents have never encountered.

The Queen’s Bush Settlement grew from the 1820s as Black settlers, many formerly enslaved in the United States or free people seeking greater security, established farms, churches and schools across territory that included present day Wallenstein, Hawkesville, Heidelberg and St. Clements. The population reached more than two thousand by the 1840s.

Some settlers had fought for the British Crown in the Rebellions of 1837 and 1838. Others had arrived through the Underground Railroad, which counted Queen’s Bush among its Canadian destinations alongside Toronto, Wellesley, Galt and Hamilton.

Johnson’s own ancestors lived and worked in the settlement. She noted that the community cleared land, cultivated crops and created deeply rooted institutions, yet their contributions have largely faded from public awareness. She believes graffiti artists are well suited to the project because the medium draws attention and carries emotional force. According to her, murals can give viewers a sense of the message in a way that written descriptions often cannot. She hopes the final artwork will help residents understand that ordinary people facing immense challenges shaped the region in lasting ways.

Historical accounts indicate that the settlement’s decline began after the land was surveyed for sale in the early 1840s. Many Black residents, unable to afford purchase prices, dispersed to other communities. Still, families such as the Browns left enduring marks. John Brown, once enslaved in Virginia, settled in Wellesley Township with his wife Lucinda and their eleven children. By 1851 their farm included livestock and one hundred twenty acres. Their descendant Keith Bell later documented the family’s legacy in a video chronicling their life in Queen’s Bush and later migration.

The new mural will be installed in Wallenstein along Wellington Road 86 on property owned by Earthscape, a local playground design and construction company. In a statement, Earthscape owner Mark Schwarz said the artwork will serve as a link between past and present, offering a place where old stories and contemporary ideas meet. He expressed hope that it will inspire both neighbours and travellers for many years to come.

As the search for an artist continues, organizers see the project as a chance to restore a chapter of local Black history to the landscape it once shaped.