Advocates for Palestine are stitching patterns and protest together to make their voices heard through a unique art form called.
Tatreez involves sewing meaningful symbols into clothes. A rose, for instance, symbolizes beauty and is common on wedding dresses, says Sara Samir, an Ottawa-based tatreez stitcher.
“Some newer symbols are emerging — like the ship symbol used for the flotilla,” said Samir, referring to a design in tatreez that is in solidarity with a global aid convoy to bring food, equipment and medical supplies to Gaza.
Samir has been teaching tatreez skills for a year. She learned about the skill from her parents. Following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the beginning of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, she was “looking to connect to Palestine” and learned tatreez skills from other artists in the community. Now she runs a five-step course, teaching “history and actual application.”
Samir’s courses include 10 hours of instruction designed to teach symbols and their meanings, as well as sewing skills.
Samir is not alone. On Oct. 18, Ottawa artist Yasmen Abuzaid is helping run a Tea and Tatreez workshop sharing Palestinian traditions at Collabüro Event Space. Tea and Tatreez is the kind of event that is run under the umbrella of the Nisa Foundation, a Canadian charity that assists Muslim women and children.
Abuzaid started learning tatreez through a workshop with the Islamic Relief Club at the University of Ottawa in 2023 and picked it up quickly. Since then, she has taught workshops around the city.
“For me, it feels like, OK, well, I have this talent and it feels weird to not take every opportunity possible to raise money, because that’s such a needed thing right now,” she said. “If there are other Palestinian women that show up and they learn about it, and they fall in love, like I did, that makes me really happy to be able to pass on that cultural heritage.”
Abuzaid worries about real versus fake activism in the art community. “Sometimes I think people show up to these things, but then they don’t show up to other events for Palestine, or they don’t do anything else for Palestine. And that actually makes me kind of cautious, because I don’t want it to be a cultural esthetic or a consumption thing,” she said.
“I think a lot of the only things people know about Palestinians now is the genocide, and it’s like, there’s more to that culture than just that.”
Abuzaid’s tatreez has been featured in other events including at Ode to Palestine on Aug. 29. The exhibition included different forms of art, all created by local artists to raise funds for Water Is Life, whose profits go directly to Palestinians in Gaza.
Tatreez is not the only art used to show solidarity for Palestine within Ottawa.
This past August, Gallery 101, on Catherine Street in Centretown, small plastic bags of soil from the occupied West Bank covered a wall.
The piece was part of a travelling exhibit, 1/1000th of a Dunam, curated by Palestinian-Canadian artist and writer Rana Nazzal Hamadeh. Dunams are units used to measure land, with one equalling roughly 900 square metres.
The exhibit displayed Palestinian culture through soil, which was collected on trips to Palestine. Nazzal Hamadeh describes it on her website as “an epistemic space where land and belonging are imagined, when in reality they have been denied.”
Gallery 101 is an artist-run gallery. It is a “first-tier gallery that gives artists a chance to exhibit their work professionally and build up their career,” said Laura Margita, the gallery’s director.
Along with hosting the Artists for Palestine Workshop, Gallery 101 “concerns itself with feminism and the First Nations of Turtle Island,” Margita said. Tânte Ohci, meaning “where from” in Nehiyawak, is an exhibit by Cree-Métis Artist Jamie Morse, currently on display.
Margita became familiar with Nazzal Hamadeh’s artistic work after seeing her 1/1000th of a Dunam exhibition, at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Nazzal Hamadeh is a founding member of Artists4Palestine, an Ottawa collective. The organization fundraises for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and Human Concern International, among other aid-supply groups.
Nazzal Hamadeh also ran a workshop at Gallery 101 in May called Artists for Palestine, centred on Artists4Palestine’s efforts and addressed questions attendees had about the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) initiative. PACBI wants universities, churches and banks to end participation with and divest from IsraelThe use of art as a form of resistance for Palestine is continuing after the current ceasefire in Gaza. On Nov. 7, Irene’s Pub is hosting a fundraiser for humanitarian efforts in Palestine.
Ticket sales will go to the Glia Organization, which aims “to build sustainable, locally driven health-care projects,” said their website. The organization raises funds for medical solidarity in places of crisis by, “ensuring they have the resources, expertise, and support needed to address urgent medical needs.”
The show will feature 10 Ottawa performers alongside a speech by Dr Yipeng Ge, who volunteered in Palestine as a medical worker.
