Preserving experiences during an unforgettable year

Hindsight 2020 collects information from Cumberland County residents

AMHERST — There is little doubt 2020 will go down in the history books as a year many would want to forget.

With close to two million people killed by COVID-19 and millions more infected around the globe, COVID-19 was one of the biggest news stories of the past 12 months and its impact is far from over.

While it would be easy to put the year in the past, the Cumberland County Museum’s executive director believes people’s experiences during the year — whether it be the virus, the mass shootings in northern Nova Scotia, and other headlines — must be preserved for future generations.

Hindsight 2020 was born and Rebecca Taylor and her daughter, Sylvie, put their talents together to document the experiences of people in Cumberland County.

“We were talking about what a strange year it had been and how it impacted so many people in so many different ways,” Taylor said. “My daughter, who is a film student at Ryerson, had the idea of doing a documentary.”

For Taylor, it’s not only a great way for her daughter, who is taking this year from her studies, to gain valuable experience, but it’s also a great way for the museum to capture living history.

“Our mandate is to collect, preserve, interpret and promote the history of Cumberland County,” she said. “We have an extensive archive upstairs or more than 10,000 documents dating back to the 1700s. As you go through the archives you get an idea of what life was like in the 1700s and the 1800s. We know some day, a hundred years ago, people are going to know what it was like to live the pandemic.”

Taylor and her daughter brainstormed questions and came up with 20 that are being asked to all participants. She said the questions are meant to draw out people’s stories, the good, the bad and the ugly. They also ask what surprised people about 2020, what they learned about themselves and how did they and the world change during the year.

“We want to know the personal stories behind life in 2020,” she said.

Taylor pitched the idea to the museum board, and it came up with the idea of putting together a commemorative book to complement the documentary that will include snippets from each of the people interviewed, while the book will go into more detail with the full transcript of each interview included in the museum’s archives.

While it’s difficult to interview everyone interested, she said others are being encouraged to submit their stories from 2020. They can answer the 20 questions themselves or simply share their thoughts on the year.

“The response has been really good. I started to reach out to people right after New Year’s Day and the response was immediate. We already have more than 30 interviews scheduled with people across the county in places like Malagash and Parrsboro and people of all ages, from seniors to students just finishing high school,” she said. “We’re looking for as many different points of view as we can find.”

One of those interviewed was Denise Corey of the Cumberland Public Libraries. She said the pandemic had a significant impact on the library’s operation, forcing all branches to close and cancelling numerous programs.

“It was really difficult because all of the things we encourage we aren’t able to encourage anymore. We want people to come in and hang out and participate in programs, but they’re not able to do that any more,” Corey said. “COVID-19 has had a significant impact on us, just as it has the community.”

Corey appreciates what the museum is doing because it will provide an archival record of what took place in Cumberland County during the pandemic and she feels it’s something that will be valuable for future generations to look back at what happened in 2020.

Sylvie, who plans to resume her studies next year, said it’s important to record people’s experiences during 2020.

“It’s exciting for people to have an opportunity to talk about their lives,” Sylvie said. “To me, it’s important to preserve this history so people can learn the numbers but also about the personal accounts of how it affected their lives.”

With no confirmed positive cases or illness, Taylor said Cumberland County is among the safest places in the world. That gives the area and its people a different perspective compared to those in areas where COVID has impacted hundreds or thousands.

She said it’s also important to record what took place in 2020 because COVID-19 has already overshadowed so many other things that took place in the last year, including the Australian forest fires in January, the Black Lives Matter protest and the U.S. presidential election.

DARRELL COLE • SALTWIRE NETWORK Sylvie Taylor sets up her camera at the Cumberland County Museum for the Hindsight 2020 project while her mother Rebecca, the museum’s executive director, acts as the subject of the interview.