Flight
"Ingrained beyond our borders”
Staying Home
Crossing Lines
Gone Abroad
What survives my journey, and what gets left behind?
Flight traces rice as it crosses continents, adapts to cuisines, and carries memory from one table to the next. From pulao to pudding, this ancient staple unites cultures through comfort and familiarity.
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Flight explores the quiet power of cultural transmission, how something as simple as rice can carry memory, connection, and survival across oceans.
In Staying Home, the gesture is subtle, a mark nearly swallowed by its surroundings. It suggests what remains when others have gone, the rooted ones, the traditions kept close, the meals repeated out of love and necessity.
Crossed Lines introduces tension. There’s beauty in the blend, warmth layered with contrast, but also confusion, a sense that signals have missed their mark. It's the complexity of navigating inherited customs in unfamiliar terrain.
Gone Abroad speaks to adaptation. The form floats, altered but recognizable. It carries the memory of where it came from, even as it rises to a new plane.
Together, these works use rice as a symbol of communion across borders and how one grain can connect a village in the Caribbean to a home in Canada, a recipe in memory to a body in protest. But even shared ingredients don’t always mean shared access. For those with restrictions, the very symbol of unity can reinforce distance.
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God scatters, but with purpose.
He scattered the nations at Babel. He scattered Israel into exile. And even with this, he still promises: “I will gather you again.” In God's hands, flight isn’t just about movement, it’s about mission. His presence moves with those who are scattered.
Rice reaches across continents and nourishes those who you may never meet. And God’s Word and grace, does the same, crossing languages, borders, and even dietary lines. So when you feel like the only one who can’t partake, He sees you and makes room.
Your distance and differences don’t disqualify you, because you're part of a story that travels.
“He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:25
Reflection Question
Where have you seen God meet you in places where you feel set apart?
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Workshops: Art-making sessions exploring food as cultural memory.
Therapeutic/Educational: Training on food as cultural archive and migration; relevant for addressing belonging, displacement, and cultural loss.
Community Dialogue: Panels and conversations on food, identity, and access.
Youth Engagement: Collaborative recipe zines, food photography, and storytelling.
Wellness Spaces: Guided reflections on memory, meals, and healing.