Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia: Elder Berries

The ElderBerries of Atlantic Canada

The Elderberries is the social and activism group for 2SLGBT Elders in Atlantic Canada and our families, friends and allies. We have four main activities:

Social Activities: We usually meet • once a month, all year 'round • usually in Halifax • usually on the afternoon of the second Sunday of the month, for fellowship including a pot luck meal. But there are lots of exceptions. Get on our mailing list (below) for the particulars. All events are potlucks, so get out your recipes!
Education: Our social events often include an educational topic relating to some element of LGBT elder life.
Public Speaking: We have a Speaker's Bureau which can provide informed and witty speakers who have been out and proud for decades, for media and other engagements. We appear at high school Gay Straight Alliance meetings around the province each year as a liaison between elders and high school students
Activism: We lobby various levels of government on a variety of LGBT & elders issues

This group was an initiative of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project's Elders Committee.

We need a small amount of money each month to operate, and we also do small projects which work way better with some support. If you have a few spare dollars, please donate using a card or paypal, here!

Questions? email us!

If you would like to be notified of events:

Email AtlanticCanadaElderberries@gmail.com or
like us on on Facebook.

Newsletters

2010: December
2011: April 7, May, June, July, August, & Supplement, September & Supplement, October (Supplement only), November &, Supplement, December 1
2012: January 12, February 18, March 21, April 15, May 14, June 20, July 8, July 27, August 14, September 17, October 26, November 21, December 5
2013: January 13, February 20, March 13, April 22, May 9, May 21, June 18, July 17, August 16, September 1, October 7, November 6, November 28
2014: January 8, January 31, February 5, March 4, April 6, May 4, June 1, July 14, August 15, October 6, November 7, December 6
2015: April 1, May 3, June 1, July 8, August 26, October 1, November 18, December 12
2016: January 8, February 9, March 5, April 6, May 7, April 6, July 9, September 8, October 1, November 4, December 13.
2017: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2018: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2019: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2020: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
2021: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2022: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2023: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2024: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December

Bylaws

The bylaws of the Society are here.

History

2009 - 2010: History of the NSRAP LGBT Elders Project can be found here.
2009 - 2010: NSRAP gets a $10,000 grant from the Department of Seniors, to work on issues affecting LGBT Elders, especially those in long-term care.1
April 18, 2010: NSRAP Gathering Of LGBT Elders at the CompanyHouse attended by 34 people.2
: Here is the report: 2010-04-18 Elders Gathering
: Here is a photo album of the event here
August 15, 2010: Public meeting -- HistoryProjectTodoList: who called it? -- at Spencer House. Inaugural Board: LynnMurphy, HalWalsh?, HeatherBurke?, AnitaMartinez, DanielMacKay, NickHonig?, HugoDann (ex officio from NSRAP), Rick. Heather resigned shortly after, and we have no record of which Rick that was. A small article appeared in the September 2010 issue of WayvesMagazine.3
November 29, 2010: one of the first Newsletters indicates that the "Committee" consists of LynnMurphy, AnitaMartinez, HalWalsh?, DanielMacKay and NickHonig?
April, 2011: April 2011 Report to NSRAP
April, 2011: September Annual Report
November, 2011: Publish the 2012 ElderBerries Cookbook
2012 ??: [Date uncertain] The Elderberries win the ISCANS Rainbow Community "Candle" Award. A couple of years later the physical award, a big piece of glass, was dropped accidentally and destroyed.
December, 2013: Intergenerational storytelling event as part of the 2013-12 Queer Gestures art show 4
October, 2015: Annual General Meeting: the new Board is AllisonBrewer, HugoDann (ex officio from NSRAP), LanceLockwood?, DanielMacKay, AnitaMartinez, KenSaunders? & JackWaller?. Lance, Ken & Jack resign a couple of weeks later.
May 27, 2016: LynnMurphy, AllisonBrewer, BarendKamperman, and NormanMoulton? went to Halifax West High School to do an Ask Me Anything with students

2016-05-27 Halifax West GSA

January 15, 2017: New Bylaws Drafted
April 9, 2017: LynnMurphy describes the May program .m4a audio
June, 2017: We get mugs printed! The back side says, We are old. We are tired. We can get away with things. So… don't piss us off!
June, 2018: Board is AllisonBrewer, RichardCrooks?, BarendKamperman, DanielMacKay, ScottMacNeil, AnitaMartinez, LynnMurphy, MikeSangster & LauraShepherd?
July 22, 2018: We host the first Elderberries Salon a transgenerational story telling event.
July, 2019: there was one in 2019 too.
January 28, 2020: DanielMacKay, AnitaMartinez, TrishSpark? and JJLyon went to John Martin Junior High for an Ask Me Anything with the Grade 9 Civics class

2020-01-28 John Martin Jr High Civics Class

July 18, 2020: Since there was to be no Pride Parade due to COVID-19 precautions, organized the 2020-07-18 Elderberries March. We got our first marching banner for it.
December 27, 2020: ElderBerries participates in the tuning of the Canadian Virtual Hospice documents for end-of-life and difficult diagnoses. The results are four documents, online here.
February 28, 2021: We create the 2021 Elderberries Study Requirements outlining the rules of engagement for study of our population.
June 13, 2021: Annual general meeting: Board: AllisonBrewer, StephanieBrown?, KevinDadouses?, PaulineFedrick? (our first international member) BarendKamperman, DanielMacKay, AnitaMartinez, LynnMurphy, and MikeSangster.
January 22, 2023: Probably the first Q Used Book Sale in Halifax, about six hundred books, at RadStorm. Here's LynnMurphy talking on CBC Mainstreet about it.
April 16, 2023: The Turret storytelling: round table story telling; we recorded the audio.
July 30, 2023: Storytelling Salon; Audio recording & photo by Claudia Chender here
January 14, 2024: RobertWright's talk about healing the Q community. The audio is available; email us to request it.
June 9, 2024: Party celebrating what would have been RaymondTaavel's 60th birthday in RaymondTaavelPark
June 13, 2024: Speakers Bureau Member AllisonBrewer is interviewed by Global News, about how things have changed positively for the q community over the years.
July 5, 2024: Letter to Halifax Pride re: their position on Palestine.
July 13, 2024: Storytelling Salon with MacPheeCentre: Audio recording & table of contents here
August, 2024: The Nova Scotia Office of Equity And Anti-Racism engaged the Elderberries to do a series of focus groups about barriers to access to government services. 24 people participated; DanielMacKay organized and did the transcripts; RenéeClark? was moderator. On file we have the budget and transcripts.
August 10, 2024: birthday party for KaitlinDrury?. On file we have photos by KirbyGeddes? of PaulPitre?, DanielMacKay, BarendKamperman, Kaitlin and her partner Bob, LynnMurphy and CecilPublicover
August 10, 2024: Picnic in PointPleasantPark?. On file we have photos by BarendKamperman of GregSweetman?, RegGiles, SandraNimmo, DaveLeblanc?, CecilPublicover, KirbyGeddes?, VanceMaxwell
September 18, 2024: Member of the Nova Scotia Legislature LisaLachance recognizes the ElderBerries for celebrating RaymondTaavel's birthday on June 9, 2024
November 17, 2024: Head of the Dalhousie School of Pharmacy Kyle Wilby presentation about pharmacy and the Q community; CBC covers it; here's the print version and here's the video version 5
November 20, 2024: Dan & Allison have lunch and host a storytelling circle at Spencer House. There's an audio recording on file.
November 27, 2024: We host a "Places Workshop" where elders talk about places that were important up to the end of the 1970s. Here's its page.

Footnotes:

1. 2009-2010 NSRAP Year In Review and AGM, written by chair MattNumer?

2. Dan's notes from the event list the people. The notes are available on the background history wiki.

3. DanielMacKay has fairly interesting minutes from this meeting

4. QueerLookingQueerActing p 22

5. November 22, 2024 CBC "Group aims to help 2SLGBTQ+ elders access health care" by Giuliana Grillo.