AADAAB KELKE,IŁĆ (I PAY MY RESPECTS TO YOU, WILD ROSE)

2025

Cotton fabric, Banarasi silk tableskirt, embroidery floss, rose flowers, rose petals, rose branches, rose leaves, rose hips, table, chairs, side tables, headphones, audio recording (2 min 33 sec loop), photos, research notes, poetry and research books, brocade fabric, embroidery hoops, threaders, needles, scissors, incense, gulabdaan, mirror, gota, jars, vase, candles, pencil drawings, thermos, cups, tea.

Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ (I pay my respects to you, Wild Rose) is a community-engaged textile work that brings together Indigenous and South Asian/Persian heritage communities through stitching circles inviting people to slow down, connect and create art in community while grounding with rose medecine.  Basic embroidery stitches are shared as folks embroider an Urdu poem by Mirza Ghalib about grief and joy encircled by KELKE,IŁĆ (Nootka roses).  

This project is grounded in my mother tongue, Urdu and in the poetic form of the ghazal.  The ghazal is a form of poetry that explores loss, longing and union with the beloved.  It is a poem of contrasts, dreams and astonishing leaps.  Poet Aga Shahid Ali says “it is an occasion for genuine grief.”  I have grounded this textile project in my personal grief of familial dislocation and disconnection through the impacts of Partition in India and I look at KELKE,IŁĆ and gulab (rose) as a plant relative that offers healing and protection for my heart.   Throughout the fall and winter, I have hosted stitching circles inviting Indigenous and South Asian and Persian communities to sit together and contemplate Ghalib’s ghazal on loss, transformation and the medicine of the rose.  The sharing of Urdu and SENCOTEN and Farsi have been powerful portals to connecting with ancestral legacies from non-European based cultures and witnessing the resonances of shared worldviews of the sacred in all beings, honouring grief and offering respect to the divine spirit in the land and waters we live on. 

Installation

Images: Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ, 2025, Open Space. Image credit: Kyra Kordoski

Stitching circles

Throughout the fall and winter of 2024/2025, I hosted stitching circles inviting folks to sit together and contemplate Ghalib’s ghazal on loss, transformation and the medicine of the rose. We continued these stitching circles as part of the Contemplating Change exhibit at Open Space and stitched in the gallery over the summer of 2025.  The sharing of Urdu, Farsi and SENCOTEN are powerful portals to connecting with ancestral legacies from non-European based cultures and witnessing the resonances of shared worldviews of the sacred in all beings, honouring grief and offering respect to the divine spirit in the land and waters we live on.  

with Aisha Haq, Alison Shields, Amena Sharmin, Anahita Ranjbar, Aneri Garg, Bri Godsman, Cairo Haq, Calle Joseph-Sampson, Chris Haq, Claire Hutton, Corrie Peters, Dahlila Charlie, Doug Jarvis, Farideh Bozorg, Gagan Leekha, Gail Boulger, Gerry Ambers, Heather Martin, Jam Ramjattan, Karissa Chandrakate, Katy Biele, Kendra Page, Khalilah Alwani, Laylee Rohani, Letitia Annamalai, Lily Crocker, Lisa M. Gookooo’koo, Liz Bean, Lorilee Wastasecoot, Mahshid Babaeimahani, Mandeep Kaur Mucina, Martin French, Matty Cervantes, Michelle Luiz, Muneera Wallace, Natalie Rollins, Paolino Caputo, Priyanka Lopez, Rita Dhamoon, Roshni Narain, Samihah Patel, Sarah Jim, Setareh Mohammadi, Shantelle Voyager, Shawna Kiesman, Sheila Alonzo, Shobhana Xavier, Stella Charlie, Stephanie Gabel, Sujatha Patira, Serena Bandar, Supriya Crocker, Taylor Pannell, Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé, Tiffany Joseph, Valerie Sing Turner, Yasmine Kandil.

Shukriya, HISKWE to all the hearts and hands that stitched.

Images: Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ Stitching Circles, Various Location in Victoria. Image credit: Cairo Haq, Bri Godsman, Amena Sharmin

zine

A zine celebrating this community engaged work was created with the support of Open Space. It features the work and writings of artists and culture weavers who participated in Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ. You can read the zine online.

Images: Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ Zine, at Small Press Fest & Open Space. Image credit: Cairo Haq, Amena Sharmin

Community Celebration 

We honoured relationships and the completion of our embroidery circles through rose medecine, feasting and dancing in the space of the installation at Open Space. My deep gratitude to every hand and heart that shared time and stitched with me.

Images: Aadaab KELKE,IŁĆ Closing Event, Open Space. Image credit: Cairo Haq, Amena Sharmin