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Articles
John and Susan Towndrow: The Quilt of Belonging Link: http://www.interpares.ca/en/publications/ar-2004/index.php Last April, John and Susan Towndrow hosted a small delegation of Inter Pares staff and colleagues visiting from Africa at their home in Cornwall, Ontario. Bonaventure Wakana and Sophie Havyarimana from Burundi, Seid Sultane from Chad, and Asha El Karib from Sudan are all staff at ACORD, a pan-African organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. They were in Canada on a visit organized by Inter Pares to deepen links with Canadian colleagues and activist organizations. The visit with John and Susan Towndrow was one of the highlights of our African colleagues' experience in Canada. John and Susan, Inter Pares supporters for over fifteen years, invited us to see a community quilt project that they were part of in the nearby village of Williamstown. When we arrived to see the project, we discovered much more than a quilt. In the old town hall at the centre of the village, we found a hive of activity, volunteers working together on "blocks" of a quilt that is 120 feet long, ten feet high and includes a textile art piece from every aboriginal group and immigrant nationality found in Canada. This Quilt of Belonging was started in 1998 by visual artist Esther Bryan, who explained, "The Canadian fabric is a patchwork composed of aboriginal peoples and of immigrants from every nation of the world. Every group and individual has experiences, stories and values to share. Each has a cultural beauty to add to our national identity. As well, the desire to be included in the overall Canadian family is a recurring need voiced across our nation." When Sophie Havyarimana saw the block embroidered by an immigrant from Burundi depicting a village celebration, she was moved to see that the image that someone from her homeland had chosen to share with Canada was not the horror of war, but the beauty and community of her people's lives. The Quilt of Belonging is a six-year labour of love, hope, and solidarity that has involved hundreds of volunteers, including John and Susan Towndrow, who have been at the heart of the project from the beginning.
The Quilt of Belonging is now on tour across Canada. For more information:
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