It's called the Oro African Church Project — a search for freedom.
Its objectives are pretty straight forward: document the Oro African story, increase site tours and develop the site around the Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church to include an interpretive centre.
It’s an ambitious plan and one that will require between $4 million and $7 million to realize.
“We will need to raise between $1 million and $2 million for construction of the building itself and between $3 million and $5 million for ongoing sustainability,” Doug Minter, lead of the Oro-Medonte Freedom Institute (OMFI), told Oro-Medonte Township politicians at their recent council meeting.
According to Minter, who was born in Tennessee but now lives in Brampton, the organization is looking to build a 370- to 560-square-metre interpretive centre on the two-hectare National Historic site, located just outside Barrie on the southeast corner of Old Barrie Road West and Oro-Medonte Line 3 North.
The church that sits on the site now is one of the oldest in Canada — it celebrates its 175th anniversary this year — and is, Minter thinks, the oldest log-cabin, Black church in North America.
“That’s a pretty significant standing,” he said.
OMFI has partnered with Soca Design, a Toronto-based architectural firm led by two young Black architects, who have developed the initial design.
“We’re very excited about having a person of African descent, you know a company, participate in helping to develop the interpretive centre, which has been long awaited,” Minter said.
The interpretive centre would be constructed of custom-designed storage container modules with facade treatments that match the church structure. A bus turnaround, parking and drop-off areas will be located beside the centre.
Minter said the organization has already been in touch with a company called Giant Containers, which builds unique, custom-built storage container-type modules.
“These are not used modules,” Minter said. “They are custom built, brand new, insulated, with all the specs units.”
Minter said the organization wants to go with this solution because of the speed of construction.
“Once you have a foundation, utilities and all your services ready, you can put a building down pretty quickly, in six to eight weeks,” Minter said. “The speed to construction lowers the cost.”
The interpretive centre, Minter said, will afford the church the opportunity to further the telling of Black history in the region and its connections across Canada and the globe.
“The rationale for the centre is to address the history of the church, the Oro Black settlement, in relation to the history of Oro-Medonte, Simcoe County and beyond,” Minter wrote in his presentation to council.
“We thought it was really important, once we started this project, that we reframe the history a bit,” Minter said during an interview following his council deputation.
“It was missing some pieces so one of the first things we did was a timeline and that timeline goes back, way back, to the 1300s and Mansa Musa, king of the Mali Empire, the richest man who has ever lived," he added.
According to Minter, the name Oro comes from the Spanish Rio de Oro (river of gold), the name of the river that supposedly ran east to west through the Mali empire. The Spanish name was derived from its previous name Rio do Ouro, given to it by its Portuguese discoverer, Alfonso Baldaia, in 1436.
Minter thinks there must be a connection.
“Our research will attempt to confirm, through implementation of various source documentation exactly how the name Oro Township came into being,” Minter told council. “We think that’s important because these are little tidbits that have never been communicated about the church and they draw people in."
Minter believes technology will play an equally important role and he’s excited about the introduction of holograms into the interpretive centre programming.
He said a recent survey of teenagers pointed him in the right direction.
“They all said they didn’t want to be lectured about history,” Minter said. “They want to interact with it and holograms make that possible.”
Minter said OMFI has partnered with Story File, a company that provides holograms designed specifically for this purpose.
He said the company will prepare 1,600 questions that will be asked of a subject. The responses will be recorded and indexed to match the question with the answer. When a visitor engages with the hologram and asks them that question, the hologram responds with the matched response.
“This is very interesting, fascinating stuff,” Minter said. “Because the interpretive centre won’t be artifact heavy, we need something to entice young people, young folks need sizzle. They all told us we want to interact with history, they don’t want to just hear about it.”
Minter told council OMFI is working on a site development plan and will be back in front of council at a later date to present those plans.
