Written by Marie-Hélène Lemaire
Head of Education, PHI Foundation

This article contains our selection of English titles only. To view French titles, please click here.

Throughout the fall, the team of educators at the PHI Foundation has offered online presentations to elementary school children based on our Family Kit – RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting, during which we explored paintings by contemporary artists from the exhibition RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting. These artists explore the idea of diaspora and how they experience it. Children learned that the word “diaspora” indicates people who have left their countries of origin and made a home in another country. In these visits, we also discussed how these migrations can be either voluntary or forced. The educators shared with the students how the idea of diaspora is often used to describe the reality of racialized people in Canada and elsewhere.

As a complement to the Family Kit – RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting, which can be used at home or in the classroom, we created this reading list of illustrated books for children of all ages! Each book is more captivating, inspiring and beautiful than the next, and allows us to explore multiple concepts connected to the notion of  ‘diaspora’: migration, exile, racialization and racism, discrimination, forces of oppression and of resilience, social justice, cultural diversity and hybridity, colonial history, and silenced and reclaimed histories of and by marginalized groups.

This reading list was assembled by Amanda Beattie, Tanha Gomes and Marie-Hélène Lemaire (the PHI Education team) in close collaboration with Katia Courteau, bookseller at Le Port de tête bookshop, as well as Kennedy Rooke, Assistant Manager at La Petite Librairie Drawn & Quarterly. A big thank you to both of them! We invite you to buy these books at either bookstore.