After the American Civil War, John Ware was among the thousands of free men who came to Canada to build a new life. Well known to Albertans as a skilled Black rancher of impeccable character, he even appeared on a national stamp, though the rest of Canada may be hard-pressed to recognize him. Writer-director Cheryl Foggo affectionately refocuses our attention toward the overlooked details of Ware’s life, fleshing out his prominent legacy as a Black pioneer.

Foggo, also a successful novelist and playwright, initially developed and presented Ware’s life as a stage play in 2012, entitled John Ware Re-Imagined. Now, she digs deeper into scant archives, traces Indigenous oral history and even excavates the land he owned to turn up physical clues about who Ware really was. Combining dramatic recreations (including an appearance by country music star Corb Lund) with investigative research, Foggo centers this under-examined piece of Black history as Canadian history, and appropriately exacts the record.