Li Shen Ho

Noor Fatima Azhar arrives dressed immaculately in a hijab. Her gold jewelry shimmers and jingles as she walks, her husband, Alban Raka, beside her. On this spring day in May, the sun shines brightly overhead, illuminating the reflecting pools of water, as people mill around the expansive grounds, taking in the splendour of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto – a place designed to bridge culture and teachings from Islamic civilizations across the world.

An electrical engineer by training in his home country of Pakistan, Syed Jafri couldn’t find a stable job when he first arrived in Toronto’s Greater Golden Mile neighbourhood in December 2021. Like so many newcomers facing barriers to employment, he made Uber deliveries on his ebike to get by. “It was hard. It was wintertime, minus 20 outside. But I did that for three to four months,” he said.

In folklore of the Onkwehonwe, there was a tumultuous era long ago known as the Dark Times, where warring Indigenous nations were driven by anger, revenge, fear and jealousy causing destruction and ruin. Amid this darkness, the Creator sent a messenger they call the Peace Maker, who brought the Mohawk, Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Onondaga nations together as the The League of Five Nations under what’s called the Great Law of Peace.