Tamara Abdul Hadi has an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver and has taught photography for multimedia at Concordia and photography intervention courses in Cairo and Beirut. Tamara co-founded Rawiya Collective, which was a collective of 6 women photographers from and working in SWANA (South West Asian, North African Region).
For her residency, Abdul Hadi made collaborative portraits with first generation Canadians and their families in Montreal. She partnered with The Immigrant Workers Centre in Quebec, which defends the rights of immigrants in their places of work and fights for dignity, respect, and justice. Tamara wrote, “Through this work, I want to amplify these people’s humanity first and foremost. I believe a project like this to be at the essence of what photographic documentation and storytelling is and is what drives me as a photographer."
Mamadou Konate
“I love this cat. I call her Meow. She gives me a feeling of home.
I came to Montreal from Cote D’ivoire on humanitarian appeal. I’ve been a truck driver, a cleaner, I worked at the CHLD at the height of the Covid pandemic. Why would I have left my home if I didn’t have to? To come somewhere where I don’t know anyone?
That was then. Now, I consider my friends here my family.”
Ibrahim Sahary
“I left Egypt in 2017. As a journalist and a community organizer I could not stay any longer, I had already been jailed many times, I did not want to go back to prison.
I came here with my daughter Laila. At first we both worked at Amazon in the warehouse. I don’t anymore, but she still does.
I work with the Immigrant Workers Center now, on the Amazon workers rights campaign.”
Sukjinder Singh
“I was born in 1974 in Punjab in Amrit Sar, near the India / Pakistan Border.
I’m a mushroom farmer here in Montreal. I work 6 days a week. My wife works at the same place as me on different days. The mushroom farm workers are like family, we all help each other. We also have an extra room at home that we offer for people to stay.
Our son lives back home in India. I miss him so very much.”
Sukjeet Kaur
“It’s been very lonely here. My husband tries to make me feel better but I feel like there is no community, no friends. It's very isolating.
But I know that life is better for us here, we just can’t live in India anymore.”
Mohammad Barry
“I am from Guinea Konakry. I had a nice childhood, and good parents.
I’ve been in Canada since 2012. When I first arrived, I worked at an ice cream company and had a work related accident that caused me to lose a part of my foot. I still take medication and sometimes walk with a cane. My sister and some cousins live in Montreal, so I had support when I was going through a hard time.
I am studying computer science at the University of Prince Edward Island. My close friends here are from Guinea, Morocco, Algeria, Palestine, Tunis and Lebanon.
The hardship for me was here. I thought when I came here it will be easy, it was tough. My life there was better.”
Klsoom
“We are from Pakistan. My husband Gulzar and I both have health problems- diabetes, blood pressure, heart problems. We are illiterate. We stay home all day because we can’t work and look after our neighbours son during the day while she is at work. We help each other in this community of migrants.
Gulzar loves the apple tree outside our building. He’s been bringing me apples from it. Here, would you like to have a few?”
Guarav Sharma
“I came here from India with my family. We are from Chandigarh in Northern India
I was associated with politics, art and social work in India. I’m passionate about community organizing. And theatre. I left to Canada in 2019.
When I first arrived, I did a few warehouse jobs, I now work at the Immigrant Workers Center. I spend most of my time in the car, either going to the centre or doing Uber Eats deliveries in my free time.
Its my moral duty to feed my family.”