Mona Parsons celebration planned in Wolfville
Back in 2014, students at Horton High School in Greenwich nominated Mona Parsons as one of the first seven people and places for the province to celebrate for Heritage Day.
Four years later, a bus load of Horton students will be heading to Halifax on Feb. 15 to take part in a symposium entitled Untold Stories: Mona Parsons and Women in Nova Scotia History.
Among those leading the symposium are Parsons biographer Andria Hill Lehr and Dr. Heidi Macdonald, who will speak about Nova Scotia Women’s Suffrage. This year also marks the centenary of some women in this province getting the right to vote.
Parks Canada historian Anne Marie Lane Jonah will speak about Acadian Jeanne Dugas and Dr. Sylvia Hamilton will present Carrie Best as a champion for human rights. Diana Lewis will focus on the women of Pictou Landing First Nation.
In Wolfville, Parsons will be honoured on Feb. 17, which was her actual birthday. An information booth is planned for the Wolfville Farmers’ Market. Then, members of the Women of Wolfville will lay tulips at the sculpture of the newly-liberated Parsons, which was erected last May.
Culture and heritage minister Leo Glavine and other dignitaries will acknowledge Parsons as Nova Scotia’s unlikely war hero at 3 p.m. at the Irving Centre, Acadia University. A public talk by Hill Lehr will follow and birthday cake will be served.
This year’s series of Heritage Day events are being organized by the Wolfville Historical Society and the provincial Communities, Culture and Heritage department. Randall House curator Krystal Tanner noted that 40 years after her death, Parsons’ contribution is finally getting recognized.
Hill Lehr, who lives in the Valley, has additional talks booked during February and a staged reading of her play about Parsons’ story is set for the Halifax Central Library on Feb. 18. She says her hope is that the play can tour the province this summer.