Heartfelt collaboration on statement quilt offered support to migrant Haitians facing challenges here

The ‘Haiti/Ayiti is Our Heart Quilt’ is  a collective, hand-crafted, creative piece of work fashioned during the period April – May 17th 2024 by a diverse group of 22 Haitians and Guyanese mostly women and girls but also boys and men of different ethnicities and ages. This particular Haiti Quilt was the brainchild of Danuta Radzik, an advocate of Haiti’s right to self-determination and sovereignty, who drew inspiration from a quilt created in solidarity with the Palestinian people in response to the genocide they are facing, which she had seen at an American museum.  Radzik noted that mainstream narratives about Haiti often focus solely on the country’s violence, perpetuating the single story of a failed state. She explained that the Haiti Quilt aimed to present other realities about Haiti which are generally and perhaps deliberately hidden from the general public. At the top of the quilt are images of Haiti’s revolutionary leaders, emphasizing the country’s revolutionary history and resilience. Other images in the quilt portray its geography, national symbols such as flag and coat of arms, art and culture, agricultural products, monuments, traditional houses, markets scenes and other aspects.