Interpretation centre on offer for historic Oro-Medonte church

It’s called the Oro African Church Project: a quest for freedom.

The goals are quite simple: document the story of the Oro Africans, organize more tours of the site, and develop the site around the Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church, including an information center.

It’s an ambitious plan, requiring between $4 and $7 million to realize.

“We will need to raise between $1 and $2 million for the construction of the building itself and between $3 and $5 million for its ongoing sustainability,” Doug Minter, head of the Oro-Medonte Freedom Institute (OMFI), told Oro-Medonte Township politicians at their recent council meeting.

According to Minter, a Tennessee native who now lives in Brampton, the organization plans to build a 4,000- to 6,000-square-foot interpretive center on the five-acre National Historic Site, just outside Barrie on the southeast corner of Old Barrie Road West and Oro-Medonte Line 3 North.

The church that now stands on this site is one of the oldest in Canada. This year, it is celebrating its 175th anniversary. Minter believes it is the oldest black log-style church in North America.

“That’s a pretty important position,” he said.

OMFI has partnered with Soca Design, a Toronto-based architectural firm led by two young black architects, to develop the initial design.

“We are very excited that someone of African descent, you know, a company, wants to help develop the interpretation center, which has been long awaited,” Minter said.

The interpretive center would be constructed of specially designed storage container modules with facade treatments that match the church structure. A bus turnaround, parking and drop-off areas would be adjacent to the center.

Minter said the organization has already been in contact with a company called Giant Containers, which builds unique, custom modules in the shape of storage containers.

“These are not used modules,” Minter said. “They are custom built, brand new, insulated, all spec units.”

Minter said the organization chose this solution because of the speed of construction.

“Once you have a foundation, utilities and all your services in place, you can put a building up pretty quickly, in six to eight weeks,” Minter said. “The speed of construction drives down the cost.”

According to Minter, the interpretation centre offers the church an opportunity to continue telling the history of the region’s black population and its connections to Canada and the rest of the world.

“The rationale for the centre is to discuss 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 the council.

“We felt it was really important that once we started this project, we put history in a little bit of a different light,” Minter said during an interview after his visit to the council.

“There were still some pieces missing, so one of the first things we did was create a timeline. That timeline goes way back, to the 1300s and Mansa Musa, king of the Malian empire, the richest man who 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 probably flowed from east to west through the Mali Empire. The Spanish name is derived from the previous name Rio do Ouro, given to the river by the Portuguese discoverer, Alfonso Baldaia, in 1436.

Minter thinks there must be a connection.

“Our research will attempt to confirm, through the implementation of various source documentation, exactly how the name Oro Township came about,” Minter told the council. “We think that’s important because these are little tidbits that have never been communicated about the church that attract people.”

Minter believes technology will play an equally important role and is excited about the introduction of holograms into the interpretation centre’s programming.

He said a recent survey of teenagers pointed him in the right direction.

“They all said they didn’t want a lecture on 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 specifically designed for this purpose.

He said the company will prepare 1,600 questions that will be asked to a subject. The answers will be captured and indexed to match the question with the answer. When a visitor interacts with the hologram and asks them that question, the hologram will respond with the matched answer.

“This is really interesting, fascinating stuff,” Minter said. “Because the interpretive center doesn’t have too many artifacts, we need something to entice young people, something exciting for young people to do. They all told us we want to interact with history, they don’t just want to hear about it.”

Minter told the council that OMFI is working on a plan for the development of the site and will appear before the council again at a later date to present those plans.