About Us | Here Magazine: Canada’s Voices

Here’s Purpose

We are a Victoria, British Columbia-based not-for-profit organization whose members are dedicated to helping newcomers transition into their adopted communities through media arts and responsive, in-place community programming and events.

Here Magazine is multimedia platform by, for, and with newcomers to Canada. We believe that lived-experience storytelling, meaningful cultural exchange, and education are key to growing empathy and building bridges of understanding. By amplifying newcomer voices and experiences and welcoming people from all cultural backgrounds, Here Magazine has established itself as a positive messaging platform celebrating the Canadian multicultural mosaic, diversity, and inclusive communities.

Mandate

to give newcomers the opportunity to see themselves and their newcomer experiences reflected in the media
to develop language skills, and cultural and digital literacies in newcomer communities
to grow intercultural awareness by sharing the norms, traditions and stories of all cultures
to introduce newcomers to their adopted communities and accessible opportunities
to exchange, engage, and empower through community mentorship and the sharing of experience

Creative, Communications and Engagement Team

President and Managing Editor

Fiona Bramble

Director of Photography

John-Evan Snow

Director of Communications

Lara Costa

Director of Community Engagement

Avigail (Avie) Olarte

Editorial Team

Editorial content is developed in collaboration with community members, organizations, service providers, and newcomer and immigrant writers, illustrators, and designers. We welcome and provide media mentorship for newcomer and immigrant writers. We celebrate emerging and established immigrant writers, writers of colour, and Indigenous writers across Canada. Contact us at community@heremagazine.ca

Sponsors / Community Partners

Territorial Acknowledgement

In our continued effort to Indigenize our work and to meaningful contribute to decolonization, the Here Magazine family expresses gratitude to the original stewards of the land, and respectfully acknowledges that our work takes place on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples. Their lengthy and tireless stewardship allows us to live in a region of stunning natural beauty that we appreciate and give thanks to everyday. This vital stewardship continues to provide us with clean water to drink and sustenance from the ocean and earth.

We acknowledge the ravages and brutal inter-generational legacy of the residential school system and are humbled by the resilience we are able to witness in First Nations survivors and their families. We accept unconditionally the findings of the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and support all recommendations and Calls For Justice.

We express gratitude for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, which give our organization the guidance and opportunity to bring newcomer and Indigenous communities together with the hopes of thwarting re-colonization and starting somewhere new together.

The Here Magazine family believes cultural education and storytelling are key to the path forward and hopes that First Nations and newcomer communities will continue to share cultural experiences and histories to deepen one another’s understanding, and to ensure that we move forward together in this time of truth and reconciliation.