Community Vision

When VIU Graphic Design Professor Sebastian Abboud and his wife, Maxine, had twins in 2020, it changed his priorities and made him think about the kind of world he wanted his children to grow up in.

It’s one of the reasons he chose to participate in the City of Nanaimo’s REIMAGINE Nanaimo campaign. The campaign invited people to add their voice to the conversation about what kind of city they’d like Nanaimo to be in 20 years and beyond. Another motivation for contributing to the campaign is Abboud’s sense of connection to the community, which he says is stronger in Nanaimo than other places he lived in the past such as Vancouver.

Abboud’s piece, “Looking Forward”, was one of three works commissioned by the City of Nanaimo’s Culture & Events team for the campaign.

“Once I moved to Nanaimo, I felt a really strong connection to what was happening,” says Abboud. “I started to plan creative events around town, and I found that every time I tried to organize something, everyone was really responsive and receptive to my ideas, which was amazing. I immediately felt like part of the community.”

“Looking Forward” depicts several topics Abboud would like to see prioritized for the future of Nanaimo, including affordable housing, active transportation, education, arts and culture, and building strong and safe communities. Abboud says the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the importance of many of these issues, especially affordable housing.

“I think it is very apparent that there is a massive divide between the economic classes. We need to focus on housing solutions for everyone,” he says. “I think especially

VIU Graphic Design Professor

with COVID and just the rising cost of housing ownership and rentals in Nanaimo, it’s just putting the pinch on a lot of people. I see it all the time in this neighbourhood. I see it right outside my window. My wife and I have been fortunate enough that we can own a house in Nanaimo, so I think we feel really privileged. We must find ways to build these communities for a wide range of economic backgrounds.” 

VIU Creative Writing and Journalism Professor Dr. Sonnet L’Abbé envisions a diverse and inclusive future for Nanaimo.

She shared that hope through her song “Nazaneen: A Song for Nanaimo,” – a fictitious letter to a friend called Nazaneen, a Black woman considering moving to Nanaimo with her sons. The song was one of three works commissioned for the REIMAGINE Nanaimo campaign.

“I tried to write a song that would help my town see itself through the eyes of one of its own Black residents,” says L’Abbé. “When I was considering moving to Nanaimo to work at VIU, I didn’t have a contact to ask about the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community.

VIU Creative Writing and Journalism Professor

“I did know people in Vancouver who had grown up here, and they warned me I might find it … challenging. If we’re looking to Nanaimo’s future, I wanted us all to imagine a future where more Black families move here, and think about how much we actually welcome that.”

L’Abbé was also motivated to write the song because of events in the summer of 2020, including the murder of George Floyd and anti-Black racism.

“After George Floyd was murdered, my need for community, and a whole bunch of people’s need for community, skyrocketed,” says L’Abbé. “I was confronted with how few people I was in touch with here in Nanaimo, how few Black people, how few professionals of colour, I could talk to in these moments.”

This motivated L'Abbé to co-organize the June 2020 Black Lives Matter march in Nanaimo.

“It was my own response to mine and other people’s sense of not being connected. The local Black population is small, and the urgency of the moment didn’t seem to be quite felt by Nanaimo – as I was feeling it, anyway,” says L’Abbé. “Coming together was really important to me. It showed visibility and asserted that Black Lives Matter. It asserted that our experiences are important, our voices are important, and there were calls for sustained attention to Black lives and valuing Black lives and experiences.”

She said the Black Lives Matter march was also an opportunity for people in Nanaimo who share those values to come together, which was “heartening” to see.

“All those experiences this summer gave me a lot to think about in terms of what I’d like to see for Nanaimo’s future and inviting more people, more diversity into town seems very straightforward.” 