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From daughter, Caroline Bieler Brettell:

"Zoë Winifred Browne-Clayton, the daughter of Lionel Denis Browne-Clayton (1874-1946) and Winifred Constance Bell (1880-1938), was born in Okanagan Mission, a small orchard community near Kelowna, BC, in 1915. Shortly after her birth, her father enlisted with the British military in the First World War, and Zoe and her mother crossed the Atlantic to live with her grandparents in her mother's home in Oxfordshire, England. In 1917, her brother Robert was born, and in December 1919 the family returned to Okanagan Mission. There, they established an orchard on the 20 acres Lionel had purchased in 1912. According to her biographer daughter, Caroline Brettell, Zoe and her brother enjoyed a relatively idyllic upbringing in the peaceful Okanagan Valley, which she wrote about in The Montreal Star (11 July 1973). Zoe attended high school in Kelowna, graduating in 1932, and was one of the few students to continue on to university, mostly at the urging of her mother. In the autumn of 1932, Zoe entered the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, where she immediately became involved in the university student newspaper, The Ubyssey.
Zoe's journalistic dreams were solidified by her success at The Ubyssey. Shortly after joining the paper in 1932, she was an editor: in the 1933-34 school year she became assistant editor; in 1934-35 senior editor; in 1935-36 news manager; and in her final year, 1936-37, editor-in-chief. In 1934, she interviewed Aimee Semple-McPherson for the paper; her probing questions were predictive of her future as a journalist of intelligence and integrity.
Zoe earned her BSc in agricultural economics in 1936, delaying her graduation for a year to earn her BA and to serve as editor-in-chief for The Ubyssey. After graduation she returned to the Okanagan Mission to help take care of her mother, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. After her mother died in June 1938, Zoe travelled to Europe, where she experienced first-hand the rising political tensions that led to the Second World War. Britain declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939; on 15 September 1939, at the urging of her relatives, Zoe sailed for Canada, arriving safely in Okanagan Mission in late September. Unable to find a position as a journalist, Zoe found work as an advertising copywriter for the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver, BC. In the summer of 1941, she moved to Toronto where she worked as an advertising copywriter for Eaton's department store for three months. She then secured a position with the Wartime Prices and Trade Board, and moved to Ottawa, ON, where she met Jacques Bieler, an engineer working for the Department of Munitions and Supply. A year later, the couple were married by Jacques's clergyman father, in Lost River, QC.
In 1943, Jacques's job took them to Montreal, where Zoe was hired by the Montreal Standard. Women's roles in journalism were somewhat curtailed after the war, but Zoe managed to carve a space for herself, working alongside journalists such as Mavis Gallant and Dorothy Sangster. In 1949, Zoe and Jacques adopted a baby boy—Brian Charles—who was joined the following June by their biological daughter, Zoe Caroline. Zoe then turned to freelance writing. In 1954, both children began pre-school, leaving Zoe free to accept a position as a full-time feature reporter at the Montreal Star.
By 1957, Zoe's dedication and journalistic ability were recognized when she became editor of the women's pages for the Montreal Star; no woman had previously held this post. For many years it was her section of the newspaper that generated the most advertising revenue. Zoe remained in this position for eleven years; in 1969, though, the hierarchy at the Star changed, and the work atmosphere along with it. Zoe's interest in science enabled her to take a job as medical reporter at an advantageous historical moment—the national health insurance plan was being developed at that time—and during this period she saw some of her stories make the front pages of the paper and win several awards. Her feminism informed her insightful investigations into significant social issues such as child abuse, alcoholism, abortion, birth control and infertility, drug addiction, and the role of women in the army and the business world.
Like her father, Zoe was active in socialist politics. In the early 1970s, she was a member of the negotiating committee for the Newspaper Guild, and later elected to the executive. The Guild was involved in the negotiations during strike action in 1975 that was resolved after two months. Strike action by the Montreal Newspaper Printing Pressmen's Union in 1978, however, shut down the Star for eight months, and it never recovered. The company folded in August 1979, and Zoe, like many others, was without a job. At 64 years of age, after over 25 years of service, her severance package amounted to a decent retirement fund. She retired, but did not stop writing, working as a freelance writer for the Canadian Medical Association Journal; in 1980, as well, she was commissioned by Positive Action to prepare a report on English-language education in Quebec. At 66, she was offered the job of editor of the People section of the Montreal Gazette. She found The Gazette chaotic and the job frustrating. She retired and ceased freelance writing by the mid-1980s. In 1988, she was diagnosed with cancer; she died in September of 1991.”

Zoe's husband was the youngest brother of Québec muralist, Andre Bieler.
When she moved to Montreal, after marrying, she worked with the [Montreal] Standard: one of her colleagues was Mavis Gallant.

News clippings that were in articles are from offices of the Montreal Star, which she rescued.

Nancy Lee Adamson (born 1951 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA) was a professor, university administrator, and a founding member of the Canadian Women's Movement Archive Collective and its predecessor, the Women's Information Centre (WIC).

Nancy Adamson is a feminist activist. She has been involved in university administration for more than 20 years and has been a lecturer since 1979. Her area of expertise was gender issues, women’s studies, and confronting sexual harassment in the workplace. Nancy Adamson is co-author of “Feminist Organizing for Change: The Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada”, published in 1989, an in-depth analysis of the contemporary Canadian feminist movement.

Nancy Adamson holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Mount Holyoke College, a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Toronto, a master’s in history from Emory University, and a PhD in History (1983) from the University of Toronto. At the University of Toronto, she established the Sexual Harassment Office and worked as a counsellor. From 1991 to 2000 she worked at Carleton University (Ottawa, Ont.) in the Status of Women Office and Equity Services.

Nancy Adamson is a founding member of the Galen University in Belize, which opened its doors in 2003. She served as Provost of the University, professor, CEO, vice president and president.
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Nancy Lee Adamson (née en 1951 à Atlanta, Géorgie, États-Unis) était professeure, administratrice d'université et membre fondatrice du Collectif des Archives du Mouvement des Femmes et de son organisme prédécesseur, le Centre d'Information des Femmes de Toronto (Women's Information Centre - WIC).

Nancy Adamson est une militante féministe. Elle a travaillé dans l'administration universitaire pendant plus de 20 ans et a été chargée de cours depuis 1979. Elle s'est spécialisée dans les questions de genre, les études féminines et la lutte contre le harcèlement sexuel sur le lieu de travail. Nancy Adamson est co-auteure de l'ouvrage "Feminist Organizing for Change: The Contemporary Women's Movement in Canada", publié en 1989, qui analyse en profondeur le mouvement féministe canadien contemporain.

Nancy Adamson est titulaire d'une licence en histoire du Mount Holyoke College, d'une licence en sciences infirmières de l'université de Toronto, d'une maîtrise en histoire de l'université Emory et d'un doctorat en histoire (1983) de l'université de Toronto. À l'université de Toronto, elle a mis en place le bureau de lutte contre le harcèlement sexuel et travaillé comme conseillère. De 1991 à 2000, elle a travaillé à l'université de Carleton (Ottawa, Ontario) au bureau de la condition féminine et aux services d'équité.

Nancy Adamson est membre fondatrice de l'université Galen à Belize, qui a ouvert ses portes en 2003. Elle a occupé le poste de doyenne de l'université, ainsi que des postes de professeure, de directrice générale, de vice-présidente et de présidente.

Makeda Silvera is a Jamaican Canadian author, editor, publisher, community organizer, and oral historian. Silvera immigrated to Canada from Kingston, Jamaica at the age of 13. Silvera worked as the co-founder and Managing Editor of Sister Vision Press from 1984 until 2001, while continuing to write and publish her own material. In “Man-Royals and Sodomites: Some Thoughts on the Invisibility of Afro-Caribbean Lesbians,” Silvera cites her great-grandmother, grandmother, and grand-aunts as major influences in her life. These women shaped Silvera’s feminist politics: “European experience coined the term ‘feminism,’ but the term ‘Black women's strength’ reaches beyond Eurocentric definitions to describe what is the cultural continuity of my own struggles.” However, Silvera also struggled to reconcile her lesbian identity with her Afro-Caribbean identity and faced her family’s disapproval when she became involved in romantic relationships with women. At the same time, movements for lesbian and gay rights were largely white and often racially exclusionary.

Through these experiences, Makeda became committed to forging community spaces for queer Black people and people of colour, as a form of anti-racist activism: “The need to make connections with other Caribbean and Third World people of color who are lesbian and gay is urgent. This is where we can begin to build that other half of our community, to create wholeness through our art. This is where we will find the support and strength to struggle, to share our histories and to record these histories in books, documentaries, film, sound, and art. We will create a rhythm that is uniquely ours-proud, powerful, and gay. Being invisible no longer. Naming ourselves and taking our space within the larger history of Afro-Caribbean peoples. A dream to be realized, a dream to act upon.” Sister Vision Press contributed significantly to the realization of this dream by highlighting the lived experiences of Black women and women of colour, and publishing anthologies specifically focused on the intersections between race and sexuality.

During her time with Sister Vision, Silvera wrote, published, and edited several groundbreaking texts including Silenced: Caribbean Domestic Workers Talk with Makeda Silvera (1989), an oral history of Caribbean domestic workers that contributed to the struggle for domestic workers’ rights in Canada. Silvera is also the author of two short story collections, Remembering G (1990) and Her Head a Village (1994), and the novel The Heart Does Not Bend (2002). In addition to her role as Sister Vision’s managing editor, Silvera worked as chief editor for the anthologies Piece of My Heart: A Lesbian-of-Colour Anthology (1991), The Other Woman: Women of Colour in Contemporary Canadian Literature (1994), and Ma-Ka Diasporic Juks: Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent (1997).

For more information see Makeda Silvera, “Man-Royals and Sodomites: Some Thoughts on the Invisibility of Afro-Caribbean Lesbians,” Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, The Lesbian Issue (Autumn 1992) 521-532.
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Makeda Silvera est une auteure, rédactrice, éditrice, organisatrice communautaire et spécialiste de l'histoire orale jamaïcaine canadienne. Silvera a immigré au Canada de Kingston, en Jamaïque, à l'âge de 13 ans. Elle a été cofondatrice et directrice de la rédaction de Sister Vision Press de 1984 à 2001, tout en continuant d'écrire et de publier ses propres ouvrages. Dans «Man-Royals and Sodomites : Some Thoughts on the Invisibility of Afro-Caribbean Lesbians », Silvera cite son arrière-grand-mère, sa grand-mère et ses grand-tantes comme des influences majeures dans sa vie. Ces femmes ont façonné la politique féministe de Mme Silvera : L'expérience européenne a inventé le terme « féminisme », mais l'expression « force des femmes noires » va au-delà des définitions eurocentriques pour décrire la continuité culturelle de ses propres luttes. Cependant, Silvera a également lutté pour concilier son identité lesbienne avec son identité afro-caribéenne et a dû faire face à la désapprobation de sa famille lorsqu'elle s'est engagée dans des relations amoureuses avec des femmes. À la même époque, les mouvements en faveur des droits des lesbiennes et des homosexuels étaient essentiellement blancs et souvent empreints d'exclusion raciale.

Grâce à ces expériences, Makeda s'est engagée à créer des espaces communautaires pour les Noirs homosexuels et les personnes de couleur, en tant que forme d'activisme antiraciste : « Il est urgent d'établir des liens avec d'autres personnes de couleur des Caraïbes et du tiers-monde qui sont lesbiennes et gays. C'est là que nous pouvons commencer à construire l'autre moitié de notre communauté, à créer la plénitude à travers notre art. C'est là que nous trouverons le soutien et la force de lutter, de partager nos histoires et de les consigner dans des livres, des documentaires, des films, des sons et des œuvres d'art. Nous créerons un rythme qui nous est propre - fieres, puissantes et gaies. Ne plus être invisible. Nous nous nommerons nous-mêmes et prendrons notre place dans l'histoire plus large des peuples afro-caribéens. Un rêve à réaliser, un rêve à concrétiser ». Sister Vision Press a contribué de manière significative à la réalisation de ce rêve en mettant en lumière les expériences vécues par les femmes noires et les femmes de couleur. La presse a publié notamment des anthologies spécifiquement axées sur les intersections entre race et sexualité.

Pendant qu'elle travaillait pour Sister Vision, Silvera a écrit, publié et édité plusieurs textes novateurs, dont Silenced : Caribbean Domestic Workers Talk with Makeda Silvera (1989), une histoire orale des travailleures domestiques des Caraïbes qui a contribué à la lutte pour les droits des travailleurs domestiques au Canada. Makeda Silvera est également l'auteure de deux recueils de nouvelles, Remembering G (1990) et Her Head a Village (1994), et du roman The Heart Does Not Bend (2002). Outre son rôle de rédactrice en chef de Sister Vision, Silvera a travaillé comme rédactrice en chef des anthologies Piece of My Heart : A Lesbian-of-Colour Anthology (1991), The Other Woman : Women of Colour in Contemporary Canadian Literature (1994) et Ma-Ka Diasporic Juks : Contemporary Writing by Queers of African Descent (1997).

Pour plus d'informations, voir Makeda Silvera, « Man-Royals and Sodomites : Some Thoughts on the Invisibility of Afro-Caribbean Lesbians », Feminist Studies, vol. 18, no. 3, The Lesbian Issue (automne 1992) 521-532.

In 1984, Makeda Silvera and Stephanie Martin founded Sister Vision, a small, independent press dedicated to publishing and distributing works by Black women and women of colour. As the first Black Women and Women of Colour Press in Canada, the press filled a long-standing gap within the male-dominated publishing industry, given that Black women and women of colour were often excluded from both mainstream and feminist publishing houses. In fact, Silvera was motivated to start Sister Vision Press when The Women’s Press rejected her oral history book, Silenced: Caribbean Domestic Workers Talk with Makeda Silvera, on the grounds that many of her interviews were transcribed in Creole.

In a 1997 interview with historian Afua Cooper, Silvera explained that “there was a real silencing going on within the alternative presses that called themselves feminist and progressive… They were often afraid of our words and our experiences. They did not identify, and for them this was a legitimate reason not to publish us. Words used to describe our creative work were ‘angry,’ ‘depressing,’ ‘no humour,’ or ‘too autobiographical.’” As lesbians, Martin and Silvera also faced difficulty garnering support from the Black literary community, in part because the press excluded men. Some anti-racist activists argued that Sister Vision was “splitting the Black struggle.” Moreover, according to Silvera, the women of colour community at that time “generally feared lesbianism and feared being labelled as lesbians.”

In some ways, Sister Vision was an extension of the Caribbean feminist commune that Silvera and Martin had created at 101 Dewson Street in 1983, which provided a central hub for black and Caribbean lesbian and gay organizing in Toronto. Both the commune and the press were radically intersectional projects undertaken at a time when racism, sexism, and homophobia were still treated as fundamentally separate issues. Moreover, Sister Vision was founded in an era of increased government austerity, and the funding that had encouraged the development of progressive, innovative organizations throughout the 1970s had largely dried up. Silvera and Martin often ran Sister Vision at a deficit, keeping the press afloat using their own personal funds or through community fundraising efforts.

Under the leadership of Silvera and Martin, Sister Vision published in the areas of women’s oral history, creative writing, theory and research, and books for children and young adults. They worked hard to get Sister Vision on the shelves in bookstores and created an avenue for women of colour to enter the publishing industry. Sister Vision also published many groundbreaking anthologies including Returning the Gaze: Essays on Racism, Feminism and Politics (1993), Miscegenation Blues: Voices of Mixed-Race Women (1994), Plural Desires: Writing Bisexual Women's Realities (1995), The Very Inside: An Anthology of Writings by Asian & Pacific Islander Lesbians (1998), and The Colour of Resistance: A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women (1998). Ultimately, Sister Vision was indispensable to publicizing the voices and struggles of queer women and women of colour, developing the market for creative works by women of colour in Canada, and fostering a politics of solidarity between queer and anti-racist activists in Toronto from 1984 until the press ceased operations in 2001.

For more information see Afua Cooper, “Out of a Cardboard Box beside Our Bed like a Baby: The Founders of Sister Vision Press,” Great Dames, Janice Dickin and Elspeth Cameron, eds. (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1997) 291-306.
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En 1984, Makeda Silvera et Stephanie Martin ont fondé Sister Vision, une petite maison d'édition indépendante qui se consacre à la publication et à la distribution d'œuvres de femmes noires et de femmes de couleur. Initialement gérée à partir d'une boîte de dossiers conservée au chevet de Silvera et de Martin, Sister Vision a été la première presse de femmes noires et de femmes de couleur au Canada. La presse a comblé une lacune de longue date dans l'industrie de l'édition dominée par les hommes, étant donné que les femmes noires et les femmes de couleur étaient souvent exclues des maisons d'édition grand public et des maisons d'édition féministes. En fait, Mme Silvera a été motivée pour créer Sister Vision Press lorsque The Women's Press a rejeté son livre d'histoire orale, Silenced : Caribbean Domestic Workers Talk with Makeda Silvera, au motif que nombre de ses entretiens étaient transcrits en créole.

Dans un entretien accordé en 1997 à l'historienne Afua Cooper, Makeda Silvera a expliqué que « les presses alternatives qui se disaient féministes et progressistes étaient véritablement réduites au silence... Elles avaient souvent peur de nos mots et de nos expériences. Elles ne s'identifiaient pas, et c'était pour elles une raison légitime de ne pas nous publier. Les mots utilisés pour décrire notre travail créatif étaient 'en colère', 'déprimant', 'sans humour' ou 'trop autobiographique' ». En tant que lesbiennes, et pour avoir fait le choix d'exclure les hommes de leur publication, Martin et Silvera ont également eu du mal à obtenir le soutien de la communauté littéraire noire. Certains militants antiracistes ont affirmé que Sister Vision « divisait la lutte des Noirs ». D'autre part, selon Makeda Silvera, la communauté des femmes de couleur de l'époque « craignait généralement le lesbianisme et craignait d'être étiquetée comme lesbienne ».

D'une certaine manière, Sister Vision était une extension du collectif féministe caribéenne que Silvera et Martin avaient créée au 101 Dewson Street en 1983. Elle constituait une plaque tournante pour l'organisation des lesbiennes et des gays noirs et caribéens à Toronto. Le collectif et la presse étaient des projets radicalement intersectionnels entrepris à une époque où le racisme, le sexisme et l'homophobie étaient encore considérés comme des questions fondamentalement distinctes. De plus, Sister Vision a été fondée à une époque d'austérité gouvernementale accrue, et le financement qui avait encouragé le développement d'organisations progressistes et novatrices tout au long des années 1970 s'était en grande partie tari. Silvera et Martin ont souvent géré Sister Vision avec un déficit, maintenant ainsi la presse active grâce à leurs fonds personnels ou aux efforts de collectes de fonds auprès de la communauté.

Sous la direction de Silvera et Martin, Sister Vision a publié des ouvrages sur l'histoire orale des femmes, l'écriture créative, ainsi que sur des approches théoriques et des recherches novatrices. Des livres pour enfants et jeunes adultes ont également été publiés. Elles ont travaillé ardemment pour que Sister Vision se retrouve sur les étagères des librairies. Elles ont mis en place des stratégies pour que les femmes de couleur soient représentées dans le secteur de l'édition. Sister Vision a également publié de nombreuses anthologies novatrices, dont Returning the Gaze : Essais sur le racisme, le féminisme et la politique (1993), Miscegenation Blues : Voices of Mixed-Race Women (1994), Plural Desires : Writing Bisexual Women's Realities (1995), The Very Inside : An Anthology of Writings by Asian & Pacific Islander Lesbians (1998), et The Colour of Resistance : A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women (1998). Sister Vision a été indispensable pour faire connaître les voix et les luttes des femmes queer et des femmes de couleur. Grace a la presse, le marché des œuvres créatives des femmes de couleur s'est développé au Canada. Elle a aussi encouragé une politique de solidarité entre les activistes queer et antiracistes à Toronto, de 1984 jusqu'à ce que la presse cesse ses activités en 2001.

Pour plus d'informations, voir Afua Cooper, « Out of a Cardboard Box beside Our Bed like a Baby : The Founders of Sister Vision Press », Great Dames, Janice Dickin et Elspeth Cameron, éd. (Toronto, ON : University of Toronto Press, 1997) 291-306.