Life Notations of Daisy Sweeney

Alison Griffith and Naomi Norquay, of York University, offer a synopsis of Dr. Arlene Campbell’s 2012 doctoral dissertation entitled, “Life notations of Daisy Sweeney : reflections of othermothering, musicianship and Montreal.”

Dr. Daisy Peterson Sweeney at 180th Anniversary Celebration of the opening of the Lachine Canal. Photo René Lortie 2005.

The authors write, “Daisy Sweeney fulfilled a life-long dream and taught hundreds of children the canon of classical piano for over 50 years. She lived her voice through her music, finding ways to validate her own identity and empowering others in the process. She used the musical stage as her platform to draw invaluable connections between race, gender, language and social class. Daisy Sweeney’s generation of othermothers is dying out and, as the carriers of culture, the urgency to tell their stories must be emphasized. The account respects, reclaims and reflects those voices. It is time to write in African Canadian female elders and diversify the exclusionary genre of life history and archival research.”

DSpace
https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/jspui/handle/10315/31697

See:
YorkSpace
http://hdl.handle.net/10315/31697

Download Dr. Campbell’s thesis here.


Photo of Dr. Daisy Peterson Sweeney taken at the 180th anniversary of the opening of the Lachine Canal in 2005. Photographer: René Lortie.