Migrating Landscapes › Join us for Culture Days!

I first became acutely aware of my connection to landscape in 1993, when I spent a year in Canada on a high school exchange. Compared to the rolling hills, evergreen forests, rock and lakes of my native Finland, I first understood the Manitoba prairie as a vastness of nothing. (Johanna Hurme) Read full story

I grew up in Sarajevo, a city in the former Yugoslavia, with all my memories tied to the European cities. These are memories of the 'old world', history, grit, and cultures overlaid through the centuries. While this heritage was strong, it had not prepared me for what awaited me after arriving in Canada as a war refugee in 1996. (Sasa Radulovic) Read full story

The half-hour drive from the Toronto airport to my new home, after ‘landing’ in mid-December 1990, was a shocking experience. (Jae-Sung Chon) Read full story

...Quand j’ai finalement élu domicile à Ottawa, j’ai vu un paysage urbain qui réunissait à la fois les maisons des francophones -- ces petites maisons de bois familières du côté de Hull -- et les maisons des anglophones, souvent construites en briques, semblables à celles observées dans les autres quartiers anglophones visités au fil des années. (Brigitte Desrochers) Read full story

While I only migrated a short distance within Canada when I moved from a small rural farming community outside of Stratford, Ontario to downtown Toronto to go to university, the change in environment was monumental... (Sarah Mulholland) Read full story

...So I packed up my bedroom, got my visa and left for Toronto. I'm not going to say that the move has been easy or that I don't occasionally miss home. But I can't imagine doing anything else or being anywhere else. (Chantal) Read full story

Growing up in a rural prairie settlement north of Winnipeg, I had developed a deep sense of respect and admiration for the surrounding landscape. Those who structured and tended to the vast fields of produce generated a sense of 'home', nested within this sprawling land. (Jason Hare) Read full story

My face pressed against the glass of the exit door at the back of the big yellow school bus that collected us each morning at 7:52am. I was desperate to see snow. Flurries the night before had left a sprinkling on the frozen gravel road that stretched endlessly across the flat, flat prairies. The bus rumbled forward and with gathering speed, thin serpents of snow and dust... (Peter Hargraves) Read full story

A migrating experience: I remember a time when my Mooshim (Cree for grandfather) set up a hunting blind in what seemed to be the middle of ‘know where’ – you’ll see what I mean shortly – somewhere in the grassy mudflats, just off the tidal banks of the Albany River in Northern Ontario... (Kenneth J. Chakasim) Read full story

My first impression when I arrived to Ottawa and Gatineau from Montevideo – Uruguay was the immense amount of free space, of air…"where is the city”, I wondered. The city seems to be the free spaces, the voids that are connected by infrastructure. (Natalia Barreto) Read full story

I grew up living in Canada and abroad, particularly in England and France. My mother took this opportunity to show my brother and I many great buildings: museums, castles, palaces and churches. (Naomi Kriss) Read full story

A Chinese king built an exactly same village near his palace for his parent because he could not convince them to live with him, he also forced all original village residents to move into this new town to mimic the social structure that old village had . Unfortunately, people began to escape from this new village after they moved in because they could not find the sense of “... (Bin Chen) Read full story

Chinatown does not mean “town” to me. It blends with Calgary's urban fabric... (Bin Chen) Read full story

I emigrated to Canada in the 1950s, relocating from Hong Kong to Vancouver. The first time I returned to China it was with a back-pack in 1972, a time when travel to China was unusual. This experience was highly political and influential at the time... (Bing Thom) Read full story

I lived in Bermuda all my life. I quit my desk job one day and said let's move to Toronto! I had never lived in a big city... (Agnes) Read full story

Having grown up as a military family gypsy, it is no surprise that I had been back and forth across Canada 10 times by my early teens, followed by education and an early work career that had taken me to Europe. Returning to Canada with a family, I was allowed to experience the country through their eyes... (Brian Lilley) Read full story

I was born in the old family home on Allen St. in the west end, where all the Italian steel workers lived... (Ron Dini) Read full story

I remember being introduced to wax crayons on the long train ride between Halifax and Montreal... (Panagiotis Sitaras architect) Read full story

I remember that, as a child, I had a different accent from the other kids, even after my family had been here a few years. I tried to change my accent, and use the right words. (Lawrence Bird) Read full story

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