Abir Ali, DTATI Cand.
Pickering, ON

Collage with poem by Shailja Patel, used with permission.

To envision justice for communities is to empower that which is held hostage by the weeds of prejudice. Moving away from the “multi”-culture of assimilating to the majority that systemically implies hierarchy. Rather, headlining the dissemblance to form the basis of unapologetic identity.

To envision culture is to immerse the senses in an ancestral exploration. The folklore of civilizations, carrying wisdoms and mysteries of healing.

Art envisions identity for the soul at its encounter. Art soothes the soul in its warm embrace of life.

To envision decolonization, is to deliver the vernacular.* Blooming roots, breaking the glass ceiling.

We contain spaces of healing to envision. We contain transformative movement through imagery to envision.

*In colonization, those things that are native and common to a place are pushed below that which is of the colonizing state. For example, with language in Pakistan, new generations are more fluent in English than Urdu. Regarding architecture, corporate chains like McDonald’s sticking out amidst local, stone houses. "Delivering" the vernacular is a type of irony meant to invite readers to imagine native/local qualities like language returning to that which was and those who were colonized.

Poetry: “Dreaming In Gujarati,” in Migritude by Shailja Patel (2008).