David Miller donated textiles (1999.32.2, 3) featured in this exhibition as a part of his wife Barbara Roberts’ legacy. Dr. Barbara Roberts (1942-1998) collected these textiles when she was a coordinator of the Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) Forum Peace Centre at the United Nations “Decade of Women” conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 1985.

Born in Eureka, California, Dr. Roberts left the US to become a Canadian citizen in opposition to the Vietnam War (1). As an academic, she dedicated her life to addressing issues of women’s rights and wrote extensively on subject of feminism.

According to Dr. Nanci Langford, Dr. Roberts’ former colleague from the Athabasca University, she had,

“a wealth of experience in the Canadian and international women's movements and peace activism. Her academic career took her to a variety of Canadian educational institutions including the Athabasca University, University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba, the University of Saskatchewan, and the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University. Barbara's community was wide and, embracing friends and colleagues from many backgrounds and numerous countries. She was a mother to two sons, a wife, a grandmother, and a member of the Quaker community in Edmonton. For those of us who were fortunate enough to know Barbara as a mentor and friend, she is best remembered for her generous heart, her playful irreverence, her incessant knitting, and her beautiful laugh.” (1)