March’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Sinda Garziz to support street art shedding light on the barriers experienced by those in Ottawa with precarious immigration status.

Through a photography exhibit, a graffiti mural, live performance, and an art installation, Sinda’s project will highlight and challenge vulnerabilities that result in fear of accessing city services.

Following a roundtable discussion with people with lived experience of precarious status, community organizers, service providers, and artists, the works will be developed in collaboration between these groups.

“The exhibit,” explains Sinda, “will take place in different locations downtown Ottawa. It will be inaugurated by a guided tour led by organizers and storytellers who have been formally undocumented. They will share with us a bit of their story as we walk through the art exhibit.”

“Canada is the only country in the West,” notes Sinda, “that practices indefinite immigration detention, where undocumented immigrants and their children can be held indefinitely in high security jails with difficult access to legal representation and no access to legal aid.”

Sinda is a migrant justice organizer, a health promoter for LGBTQIA+ newcomers, and a master’s student at St. Paul University.