Dalhousie Art Gallery is hosting an Emancipation Day celebration this week.

Emancipation Day was officially recognized in Canada in 2021 after a unanimous vote by Members of Parliament. Aug. 1 marks the day in 1834 when the Slavery Abolition Act came into effect across the British Empire, including Canada.

This week's event has a guided tour on the current The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts exhibit and curatorial talk from David Woods.

The Emancipation Day celebration also invites families of African Nova Scotian descent who have quilts to tell the stories of their own family histories. The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts is an exhibit that explores the use of quilt making and the evolution of them over the past century in Nova Scotia’s Black communities.

“We had quilters who were doing designs based on symbols that represent freedom, that represented emancipation,” Dr. Barbara Hamilton-Hinch, assistant vice provost of Dalhousie’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, says.

The quilts used coded communication for people escaping slavery. They would often be hung in windows and over clotheslines for people to follow as directions as well as give warnings of dangers along the journey.

Having this exhibit showcased on Emancipation Day allows people of African descent to reflect and hear the experiences of those who were enslaved, Hamilton-Hinch says.

“To see the work of young artists who have developed such a strong connection to themselves as people of African descent and to that part of our history of having been enslaved, is important,” Hamilton-Hinch says.

The Emancipation Day Celebration is from 1-5 p.m. Aug. 1-2 and The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts exhibit runs until Aug. 6.

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