Nice to Meet you Stories of Migration
Meet members of our community.
Portraits and interviews by Luana Magno.
June 15th to October 1st 2021
In 2020, Luana Magno participated in the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership’s Diversity in Leadership Project. As part of this project, diverse voices were brought together to explore their journeys through storytelling.
Luana Magno is a newcomer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a trained lawyer who expresses herself through art, especially photography. She found a great connection to the stories shared in the Diversity in Leadership Project and consequently with the people telling them, some of whom you will find in this exhibition. When coming together in this project, they were not under-represented any longer, at least not in this space, where diversity was seen as wealth, something to be celebrated and treasured.
From this experience, a desire developed in Luana to create community connections by sharing the journeys of other migrants. By seeing their friendly faces and hearing their stories, neighbours and communities would know precisely how much value and potential these immigrants bring with them. This vision became the Nice to Meet You Project.
Nice to meet you is a project in exhibition form that presents the diverse voices and faces of immigration, where representation matters, and people are seen for their uniqueness- for who they are.
We acknowledge and respect their stories before Canada and in Canada. At this exhibition, you will see faces of community members, TCLIP partners, friends of the museum and people who were part of the Diversity in Leadership Project, all of whom made their journeys to Canada and made this country their chosen home.
This is the face of our neighbours, coworkers and friends. Each one of them has a singular and amazing journey, filled with courage. They came to this country looking for different things: safety, adventure, love. They jumped into the unknown and are here to tell you stories of resilience.
Welcome, it’s nice to meet you.
Our partners:
What if we already had, within our community, most of the resources and possibilities we are looking for?
The Nice to meet you project is an initiative in artform that arose from the longing for connection. It is a safe space where the incredibly diverse and beautiful people, who chose Canada as their homes, share their inspiring stories.
It is your doorbell announcing your neighbours are outside, and they are excited to share a bit of their life journey with you.
Please, open your door, mind and heart.
Luana Magno is a photographer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is a newcomer who currently explores her art in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
Nice to Meet you Project
Stories of Migration
Artist Statement by Luana Magno
In a healing journey to find my own voice, I bumped into many beautiful faces, powerful voices, such inspiring stories.
Faces looking for eyes to be seen. Voices running after ears to be heard.
How could I not have noticed I had such inspiring people as neighbours? How do we meet these people? Do we need a formal introduction?
So, the idea to bring these empowering voices together and make a proper introduction came up. Especially because in times of uncertainty, it’s imperative to find new ways of doing things, of seeing and understanding the world around us. How could we understand the world if we don’t know our neighbours?
We like to hear from you!
If you would like to share your story and participate in this ongoing projects please email us.
The link on each portrait will take you to their respective interviews. All interviews are hosted on youtube.
