Could you say a bit more about how your experience on GPISH has influenced your practice and vice versa?
Nabila Walji is a second-year student on theGraduate Programmein Islamic Studiesand Humanities(GPISH)andhas recently opened her first exhibition—UnBelongingin my Fatherland—with Calgary’s Arts Commons.Here she talks about hercombined academic-artistic photographic and writing practice, whichexploresidentity, culture, discrimination and community, with a focus on herpartlyEast African heritage.
Please couldyou tellusa bit about your exhibitionUnBelonginginmyFatherland and the subject matter it covers?
The exhibition isabout evoking that sense that I think everyone feels to differing degrees,ofnot belonging in a place that they’re from, or that they live in–and about that universal search for a home.But on a more specific level, it’s about my own journey of being a Canadian,who always grew up thinking that they’re part South Asian and part East African, but ingoing tomyEast African fatherlandfinding that un-belonging could be found in the place thatIthought wasmyhomeland as well.I think, for any diasporic or migratory peoples, including IsmailisAdherents of a branch of Shi’i Islam that considers Ismail, the eldest son of the Shi’i Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 765), as his successor., there’s a huge resonance, in terms of the story that the exhibition is telling, because many of us have been migratory or have had to move.
What prompted you to start the project or start asking those questions?
It comes partly from my youth, ofbeing a person of colour in a Canadian society, where many people are told–whether they’re born there, they’re first, second, thirdorfourth generation–they’re still told:go back to where you came from. AndsoI guess for me, subtlyor not so subtly, it made meask:where is that place? And I found that it is kind of elusive, that there’s no actual origin point.The next layer then comes from my own experiences living and working in East Africa and reflecting on my positionalityin that societywhen I was there. And the complexity of being what they call Asian, or what they call Indian, in that society and finding that, even if we’re fifth generation there, we still don’t really belong there either.The last part of this question would be just having an interest in documenting my family history in the area.Once I lived in Nairobi, I discovered that there’s this very vibrant, creative community that isn’t stuck in silos, where art belongs in one category and social impact belongs in another.They’re engaged with their societythrough their creativity. Through them, I was able to learn how to document these places.
Could you say a bit about your combined academic, artistic, photographic and writing practice?
I always was a writer, and I did photography as a hobby. I got more into street photography during my undergraduate studies living in the very vibrant city of Montreal. I integrated these to some extent in my anthropological studies, because it provided that space to do visual anthropology and explore the image, and combine art and academics in writing through ethnography. It started to more concretely bridge in my internship withAga KhanFoundation (East Africa)in Nairobi, because I was put in a communications position andwasrequired to take picturesandwrite. And thenImet a lot of these creativesthere,that I mentionedearlier.Through GPISH, I realisedI enjoyed the intellectual rigour of the academic world, and the ability to really research an issue.I’ve realised that there’s space to combinemy artistic practicewith academicapproaches, anddo applied research.That’s hopefully what I’ll bepursuing more in my third year,because I’ve chosen an anthropology programmeat Oxfordthat has a lot of experience in visual,materialandmuseumanthropology. AndsoI’m hoping through engagement with that programme, I’ll be able to find that space and more deeply engage with issuesofidentity andracism I’m interested in.
This idea of applied practice orappliedresearch has influenced a lot of my GPISH experience. And a lot of my papers have been about the visual or art.I’m trying to think of ways to practiceinthis field and to challenge my thinking on it too. GPISH has given me the space tobetterunderstand racism and discrimination as they relate to the wider questions of culture, identity and development.Through it, I have gained a much better understanding of the roots of Islamophobia and the systemicfactorsthat underlie a lot of the issues in Muslim majority areas. I think I didn’t even appreciate coming in how much more depth I was going to get.I’ve now gota different layer of understanding oncolonialism and its impact.I’m looking forward to taking that learning forward with other projects.
My GPISH researchproject isfocusing on the idea of place, memory and identity in Nairobiusing my family’s restaurant, which wasan iconicestablishment inthe city.I’mlooking at how,through people’s memory,the restaurant representscultural heritage in the city.There’s an image of it in the exhibition:it’s directly across from theiconic townJamatkhanain Nairobi.
What do you hope visitors take away from your exhibition?
UnBelongingin my Fatherlandis kind of an ode to the Ismaili community and is reflective of many of our experiences. Andsoin that sense, I’m hoping that for people who might have roots in East Africa, they’re looking at it critically.The exhibition does tell stories aboutrecognisableplaces,but there is commentary throughout,on colonialism, racismand some political issues that challenged me as a Canadian outsider who also was kind of an insider.I hopepeople whose families are from the region or who have heard about it and identify with the region,alsoget to learn about what everyday life islike, rather than just be too caught up in the nostalgic element of it.Part of the goal isalsoto counterpoint the ways in which Africa as a continent is usually represented by showing its internal diversity,focused on this region.More broadly, I think it is about reflecting onyour own positionality in your societies and thinking through un-belonging, whichstems from racism.
