In 2015, a photo of Alan Kurdi went viral after the three-year-old boy drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing Syria with his family. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * In 2015, a photo of Alan Kurdi went viral after the three-year-old boy drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing Syria with his family. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? In 2015, a photo of Alan Kurdi went viral after the three-year-old boy drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing Syria with his family.
The image sparked worldwide awareness about the Syrian refugee crisis, leading to Canada welcoming about 25,000 refugees from that country. Until Sept. 23, Winnipeggers who pass the Burton Cummings Theatre downtown will be reminded of his tragic death, and of the continued plight of refugees around the world, through a new installation created by local artist Darcy Ataman.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Travel Safe uses shoes and backpacks in the image of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose 2015 death gripped the world. The two-and-a-half-storey installation, which uses more than 3,000 shoes collected from refugees in the developing world to depict Kurdi’s image, was officially unveiled Wednesday in Odeon Park at the corner of Notre Dame Avenue and Smith Street. Ataman, founder of Make Music Matter, an organization that uses music and art to help refugees deal with trauma, said he was inspired to create by a conversation with a young Syrian refugee he met in 2017.
“He told me he knew nobody was coming to save him,” Ataman said of the young man. “That conversation stopped me. It was heartbreaking.
” Through , Ataman said he wants to remind Winnipeggers not to forget people like that young man, and also the more than 100 million refugees or displaced people around the world today. “Nobody wants to leave home. Do we think anyone wants to put their children on a homemade raft to cross a sea? I decided I had to do what I can to shake people out of their apathy, to find a way to bring (that message) home,” he said.
To make Ataman canvassed his contacts in 25 countries for shoes from refugees. “I told them to send me any old shoes they could find,” he said, adding that he offered to replace shoes for any refugee who gave up their only pair. After receiving the shoes, Ataman painted them to create Kurdi’s image and then zip-tied them to a net attached to scaffolding.
It took two 12-hour days to assemble the installation. Nulifer Demir / The Associated Press/DHA files The image that moved Darcy Ataman to create Travel Safe shows a police officer standing before Alan Kurdi, 3, in 2015 near a Turkish beach resort where he died fleeing strife in Syria. The piece’s border is made up of backpacks painted bright orange — the colour of life-jackets.
Along with the shoes, Ataman also asked for any other items people might want to share; these are hidden within the backpacks. They include such things as keys, handbags, handmade dolls from Uganda, and a selection of toys from displaced children who walked from Venezuela to Peru, a journey that can take up to two weeks. “I was touched and humbled by the things they sent me.
They trusted me with them in order to tell their stories,” Ataman said. One refugee provided a photo of their missing and presumed-dead father. “It was the only thing of their father they had left,” Ataman said.
“I don’t have words for a gift like that. It shows how desperate people are to tell their stories.” Ataman chose Odeon Park for since it is a high-traffic area.
“I hope when people drive or walk by it, the statistics can be turned into flesh-and-blood people, real people with real lives and real hopes and dreams. I hope it shocks a bit and provokes conversation and debate about what we can do to help refugees, to learn more and to take action,” he said. Monday mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
Joining Ataman at the unveiling was Elizabeth Aluk Andrea, a refugee who came to Canada from Sudan in 1999. She encouraged the 75 or so people gathered for the event to stand in solidarity with the millions of people who are refugees or displaced from their homes. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Darcy Ataman compiled Travel Safe to remind passersby of Odeon Park of the continued plight of an estimated 100 million refugees around the world.
Maysoun Darweesh, who came to Canada in 2012 as a refugee from Syria, said the installation can help people ask themselves what they can do to help refugees today. Izzeddin Hawamda, who arrived from Palestine in 2009, said it was a reminder to call for an end to all wars, including the current conflict in Gaza, because of how they create refugees. After finishing its run in Winnipeg, Travel Safe will be on display on the lawn of Parliament Hill in Ottawa in October.
Travel Safe was made possible by support from groups including the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba, Winnipeg School Division, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. For more information, visit . John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003.
He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism.
Thank you for your support. John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.
S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism.
If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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