This exhibition was commissioned to Tempo Historical Consulting by the Embassy of Portugal in Canada to commemorate the 70th anniversaries of Portugal-Canada diplomatic relations in 2022 and the beginning of Portuguese mass migration to Canada in 2023. The individuals and organizations featured in it were selected from among 100 short documentaries that Gilberto Fernandes co-produced with Pedro Rodrigues in 2015-17 for the Rádio Televisão Portuguesa Internacional’s television show Hora dos Portugueses. Most of the artifacts used, along with some photos and videos, were crowdsourced from seventy of these individuals and organizations. Some participants were interviewed further for the purpose of producing narrative audio clips to accompany each of their items. Other photos, historical records, videos, and artifacts were provided by multiple private collections and public archives.
This exhibition would not have been possible without the support of the Embassy of Portugal in Canada, particularly Ambassadors João da Câmara and António Leão Rocha, the Chief of Mission João Paulo Costa, and the Cultural Attaché Rita Sousa Tavares; the Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua; the Labourers’ International Union of North America Local 183; and the office of the former Deputy Mayor of Toronto Ana Bailão.