THE COMMON THREAD PROJECT
Stories of our Shared Humanity
The Common Thread Project is a community arts initiative based in Thunder Bay that brings together portrait photography, audio interviews, youth collaboration, and public art to create opportunities for people to encounter the lives, experiences, and perspectives of people they might not otherwise come across.
Thunder Bay is a community with tremendous strengths, resilience, and diversity. At the same time, like communities everywhere, we can become disconnected from people whose experiences, backgrounds, beliefs, or perspectives are different from our own. The Common Thread Project grew from a curiosity about what might become possible if we became a little better at seeing one another as the complex and imperfect human beings we all are, and approached one another with humility, curiosity, and compassion.
The idea for The Common Thread Project grew out of an experience I had while working in Wikwemikong First Nation. The day before leading a course with a group of community leaders, I learned my grandmother had died. That night, the group suggested we hold a ceremony for her. I was deeply conflicted. I loved my grandmother dearly, but she had held strongly racist beliefs. In my eyes, she didn't deserve the prayers of my Indigenous friends.
That evening, they spoke about my grandmother's upbringing, the fear and ignorance of the times, and what may have shaped who she was and what she believed. They asked about who she was beyond those beliefs. They didn't excuse or condone her, but helped me see her more fully. They showed compassion to a woman they had never met when I couldn't find it for someone I loved. Together, they helped me honour the humanity of a complicated, imperfect woman.
That experience has stayed with me. I've often wondered whether, if my grandmother had been able to see the humanity in others, she might have carried the same compassion and grace my Wikwemikong friends showed—and how that might have shaped her life and the lives she touched.
Years later, while working with youth exploring racism, fear, hatred, and human division, I found myself returning to those same questions. I began to believe that if we can learn to see one another as the complex and imperfect human beings we are, and approach one another with humility, curiosity, and compassion, it becomes harder to dismiss, fear, or hate others. We may even recognize aspects of ourselves in people whose lives have unfolded very differently from our own. The Common Thread Project grew out of these experiences and conversations.
At its heart, The Common Thread Project is about helping us see one another more fully, beyond our differences.
Working alongside a small youth cohort, the project will create a series of community profiles featuring environmental portraits, audio interviews, written excerpts, and the perspectives of people representing a wide range of lived experiences and perspectives across Thunder Bay.
The completed project will include a series of black-and-white portrait installations displayed throughout the city, incorporating written excerpts, audio, and a physical thread that connects the work. The installations will rotate through community locations across Thunder Bay, creating opportunities to pause and encounter people, experiences, and perspectives we might not otherwise engage with, and to reflect on the assumptions we make about one another and the common human experiences that connect us.
The project is currently in development. Stay tuned for updates, opportunities to get involved, and information about future installations.
Interested in the Project?
Potential participants
Youth collaborators
Community partners
Sponsors and supporters
Now Recruiting- THE COMMON THREAD PROJECT TEAM
Interested in joining the team? We are looking for a small youth/young adult cohort (approximate ages 16–21 ish) to help shape The Common Thread Project. (1st Meeting, October 17th)