Podcast Summary: Migrant Odyssey – "One Stitch – A World of Meaning"

Host: Stephen Barden
Guest: Hajar
Date: January 28, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode of Migrant Odyssey, host Stephen Barden speaks with Hajar, a young woman of Lebanese and Palestinian heritage. Together, they explore themes of migration, belonging, family, and the value of stories and cultural memory. The conversation is woven (much like the embroidery it discusses) with reflections on personal and collective identity, displacement, activism, and the ways history is preserved and reclaimed—often, literally, one stitch at a time.

Hajar’s story is one of crossing borders, physical and emotional. She discusses how diaspora changes the fabric of identity and how the act of telling and preserving stories is itself a form of resistance—a way of stitching together connection and meaning even in exile.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Loss and Reinvention of Community

[00:15 – 02:08]

• Opening reflection by Stephen: Migration threatens not just the loss of home, but “the weave” of community—the small, intimate stories and shared experiences beyond food, language, and music.
• “Those who wage war to expel others from their homes seek not just to kill people, but to unravel what I call the carpet of fine threads that gave them their belonging.” – Stephen [00:42]

Early Identity and Awareness of “Difference”

[02:31 – 05:26]

• Hajar grew up assuming everyone was “half Palestinian” due to her surroundings and upbringing, only realizing the significance of her identity after being called out in middle school.
• “It felt so unfathomable to me that someone would just be fully from one place... It felt impossible to grasp.” – Hajar [03:19]
• She notes she’s never really noticed facing racism herself, attributing it to living “in [her] own bubble” and ignoring what doesn’t serve her.

Family History, Activism, and Statelessness

[06:29 – 08:20]

• Parents met at Pan-Arabist conferences; father Palestinian, mother Lebanese.
• Legal complexities: As a Palestinian, her father could not pass on nationality; her parents’ first act as a couple was to secure Canadian citizenship to avoid being stateless.

The Endless Motion of Displacement

[08:21 – 09:53]

• Life as a perpetual movement: “Once you’re out of the homeland, you’re never going to come back fully.”
• Attachment shifts from a single “homeland” to the geographies and communities they traverse.

Belonging: Geography, People, and Water

[09:53 – 13:11]

• Hajar’s sense of belonging pivots between places—her heart aches for Southern Lebanon and “Palestine being [her] ultimate compass.”
• She feels attachment both to people and physical spaces, especially to bodies of water: “I measure geographic places by the bodies of water... I’m so attached to it.” – Hajar [11:44]

The Toll of Political Imprisonment

[13:28 – 17:41]

• Family members have spent years in Israeli and Syrian prisons; trauma not only affects the imprisoned, but their families.
• The reference to “obliteration” and the deliberate attempt to erase memory as a weapon of genocide.

The Search for Roots: Hajar’s Bedouin Grandmother

[18:17 – 24:17]

• Hajar entered anthropology “as a form of spite” against the erasure and lack of documentation for Palestinian experiences.
• Her research into her grandmother’s tattoo symbols and family lineages uncovered precious little; she relies on voice messages and oral histories to reconstruct her story.
  • Notable Quote: “I really wanted to document the oral history... I had a lot of questions about her tribal tattoos, and I couldn’t find absolutely anything.” – Hajar [19:04]
• A voice message from her grandmother, initially thought to be poetry, turns out to be a jokey, poetic parable about love and respect for mothers. The story illustrates the importance of care and familial bonds, as valued in their culture.

Art, Literature, and Resistance

[25:04 – 30:25]

• The new generation aims to reclaim and narrate their story through art, poetry, and academic work that does not sanitize or “sterilize” vibrancy and emotion for academic consumption.
  • “We’re all stitches in our own way to make the final patriarchy embodiment. It doesn’t make sense to come in and only make it academic because we’re not a still community. We’re a very vibrant community.” – Hajar [27:09]
• Palestinian men are, contrary to stereotypes, deeply expressive and poetic.

The Political Nature of Survival

[29:30 – 32:38]

• The politics of daily life—from food to water rights—are highlighted.
  • Example: “Collecting rainwater is illegal in Gaza.” – Hajar [30:41]
  • Extreme examples from the US and other contexts underline how disconnected current policies are from the natural order.

Research in Athens: Diaspora and Identity

[32:38 – 39:45]

• Hajar’s research took her to Exarchia, Athens—a center of activism with a strong Palestinian community.
• She created a composite character, “Arabella,” merging the stories of many refugees into a narrative written in poetic form. This method preserved anonymity while highlighting the shared pain and resilience.
  • “Everyone became Arabella... these experiences are so shared and they’re so common and they’re so felt through the international Palestinian community.” – Hajar [37:00]
• Despite fragmentation by class, sect, or background, Hajar argues, “the lack of an international community is still a presence of an international community—just not in the ideal way.”

Internal Dynamics of Exile Communities

[39:45 – 43:20]

• Dynamics in exile reflect differences based on class, refugee experience, or time since leaving the homeland, but in moments of crisis, these distinctions fade and unity emerges.

Embroidery (“Tatreez”): Culture, Memory, and Resistance

[43:20 – 48:25]

• Palestinian embroidery is both art and history; patterns once identified the wearer’s village, status, and life events.
• Hajar learned embroidery while alone in Canada to stay connected to her roots—a response to the aging of community storytellers and tradition-bearers.
  • “When you think of it as we’re all part of different stitches... coming together to make the whole idea of a taub, it’s a lot easier to feel connected.” – Hajar [44:41]
  • She is making her first taub (traditional dress), intended first as an engagement taub but now as an “intifada taub” in honor of resistance.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Those who wage war to expel others from their homes seek not just to kill people, but to unravel what I call the carpet of fine threads that gave them their belonging.”
  Stephen Barden [00:42]

• “It felt so unfathomable to me that someone would just be fully from one place... It felt impossible to grasp.”
  Hajar [03:19]

• “I think, honestly, I measure geographic places by the bodies of water and the places, because I’m so attached to it.”
  Hajar [11:44]

• “I really wanted to document the oral history... I had a lot of questions about her tribal tattoos, and I couldn’t find absolutely anything.”
  Hajar [19:04]

• “We’re all stitches in our own way... It doesn’t make sense to come in and only make it academic because we’re not a still community. We’re a very vibrant community.”
  Hajar [27:09]

• “Collecting rainwater is illegal in Gaza.”
  Hajar [30:41]

• “The lack of an international community is still a presence of an international community, just not in the ideal way.”
  Hajar [38:40]

• “When you think of it as we’re all part of different stitches... coming together to make the whole idea of a taub, it’s a lot easier to feel connected.”
  Hajar [44:41]

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic Description | |-----------|--------------------------| | 00:15 | Opening reflection on the “weave” of community | | 02:31 | Hajar’s childhood perception of identity | | 06:51 | Parents’ activism, meeting, and migration story | | 08:21 | Perpetual movement after displacement | | 09:53 | Sense of belonging tied to people versus place; attachment to bodies of water | | 13:28 | Family history of political imprisonment | | 18:17 | Motivation for anthropological research; challenges documenting oral history | | 22:24 | Hajar’s Bedouin grandmother’s story—humor and poetry | | 25:04 | The importance of art and poetry in resistance | | 29:30 | “Everything is political”—from food to rainwater | | 32:38 | Research in Athens; building Arabella’s character | | 38:40 | Community fragmentation and unity in diaspora | | 43:34 | Embroidery (tatreez) as cultural and personal anchor | | 45:24 | Learning to embroider to preserve family tradition | | 46:52 | Explanation of the taub (traditional dress) | | 48:39 | Next steps: Documenting village stories and rebuilding community |

Tone and Language

The episode is heartfelt, reflective, and poetic—mirroring the cultural form and content under discussion. Hajar’s language is thoughtful and at times gently humorous, filled with longing for connection and a fierce desire to document and honor her heritage. Stephen’s approach is empathetic, inquisitive, and informed, drawing out the deeper stories and connections in Hajar’s narrative.

Conclusion

“One Stitch – A World of Meaning” is a tapestry of personal and collective memory, loss and resilience, and the ongoing act of stitching together identity in exile. Hajar’s journey—her activism, research, and art—highlight how storytelling, in every form, is a powerful tool for resistance, healing, and the weaving of new belonging out of displacement.

Ending Note:
Hajar’s next step is to document the ongoing story of her village in southern Lebanon, rebuilding its memory “physically, spiritually, academically, just absolutely in any possible way.” [48:39]

Images referenced:

• Hajar promises to send photos of embroidered taubs, including one belonging to her grandmother and one with her by the Lebanese sea, symbolizing unity of identity (see [47:29] – [48:25]).