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, immigrants, and those with historical and/or current barriers to equity be equitably represented in multimedia and enjoy full and meaningful social, civic and economic participation through community programming and events.

Here Magazine is multimedia platform by, for, and with newcomers and immigrants 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, immigrants, and those with historical and/or current barriers to equity the opportunity to see themselves and their 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 improve social, civic, and labour market participation
to support relationship-building and cultural exchange between newcomer and Indigenous communities

Creative, Communications and Operations Team

CEO and Managing Editor

Fiona Bramble

Director of Operations and Project Management

Kareece Whittle-Brown

Communications Coordinator

Mary Kaye Abellana

Art Director

Alberto Cortes, with assistant Jojo

Director of Photography

John-Evan Snow

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

Land 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 traditional lands of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples of the Songhees, Esquimalt, and W̱SÁNEĆ Nations. We express gratitude for their ongoing stewardship of these lands, air, and waterways and hold deep respect for the language, traditions, and cultural practices of all Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.

We acknowledge the ravages and brutal inter-generational legacy of day schools, the Sixties Scoop, and 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.