Focus Hub brought Indigenous elders and an Islamic scholar together at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Oct. 17 for Uncensored Dialogue. This conversation series pairs their stories with artwork by students and youth.
Fathma Mehjabin, a member of Focus Hub’s board of directors, said the event was designed to open a bias-free conversation.
“Uncensored Dialogue [is] about facilitating a conversation between Indigenous elders and immigrant knowledge-based scholars in our community,” Mehjabin said.
“The point of this conversation is that there is a lot of discourse around colonialism, immigration, how that intersects,” she explained. “This is one of the ways that we’re hoping there is an open conversation with no biases that come into this.”
While elders and scholars led the discussions, the artwork reflecting them came from youth. An augmented-reality gallery at the event featured work by emerging and student artists.
Mehjabin noted that the mix of generations of artists is what made the series stand out.
“We are working with a ton of student artists and also experienced artists,” she stated. “The conversations that are happening here are with folks who have a ton of experience […] but then the artwork that you see that is supposed to reflect these conversations come from our youth, Indigenous youth, immigrant youth.”
This edition focused on the Muslim community. “Because this month is Islamic History Month, we had the focus of engaging Islamic scholars within Canada,” Mehjabin said. She confirmed that future events will pair Indigenous elders with other immigrant communities.
The program is funded primarily through Canadian Heritage, with provincial support from the office of the minister of municipal and northern relations and Francophone affairs.
Among the community partners was the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute (CMWI), a Winnipeg family resource centre. Eve Sotiriadou, the institute’s executive director, hosted a breakout table on collective care.
Sotiriadou said CMWI was created by Muslim community members “who have experienced diverse layers of discrimination, including racism, Islamophobia and gender discrimination.”
Their goals include navigating difficult circumstances and finding tools. “One way to do that is by coming out in the community, getting to know all the folks and engaging in difficult conversations,” she said.
Her table looked at how Winnipeggers can support one another through shared concerns such as food insecurity, housing and racism, which she said show up in different settings like schools and workplaces.
“What [we are] doing as individuals [is supporting] each other to alleviate some of that pressure around survival,” Sotiriadou said.
According to Sotiriadou, CMWI, funded by United Way and the Winnipeg Foundation, runs a food bank twice a month, emergency pantry access, financial coaching, mental health and family programming, a donation centre and employment programs.
For Mehjabin, the highlight of an event like this is seeing audiences find common ground. “I’ve always seen audiences have a light bulb moment where they understand a similarity.”
“If you’re not open to learning and understanding, you’re never going to be inclusive [or] feel like you’re a part of this land,” Mehjabin explained.
