مجموعه داستان های هزارهای کرایستچرچ Hazara Stories Christchurch Collection

مجموعه داستان های هزارهای کرایستچرچ Hazara Stories Christchurch Collection has just been launched in Canterbury Stories. The Hazara people are a Shi’a Muslim minority from Afghanistan. Many have resettled in Christchurch and wider Canterbury as former refugees after escaping persecution from the Taliban.

Last year, Simon, our Community Stories Liaison, established a partnership with Wahida Zahedi, a Hazara who currently works in refugee resettlement for Red Cross in Christchurch. Wahida saw Canterbury Stories as a chance to give her community a visible digital presence. Wahida and her husband Mehdi Azimi took time to curate a collection of personal photographs to start off the collection. By seeing the tangible result, they hope that other Hazaras in Christchurch and Canterbury will start to contribute more material to the collection.

Canterbury Stories allows for communities to use descriptions and collection titles in their own languages. Here, we have used the Dari title provided by Wahida first with the English title second.

We are thankful to Wahida and Mehdi for entrusting Christchurch City Libraries to preserve and tell the story of their community and we look forward to continue working with them and other members of the Hazara community in the future.

Wahida at henna ceremony. In copyright. CCL-Hazara-1004 https://canterburystories.nz/collections/community/hazara-stories/ccl-cs-45954
Wahida at henna ceremony. Stage prepared for henna night, traditional pre-wedding celebration where the bride and groom decorate each other’s hands with henna. Pictured is Wahida Zahedi wearing a traditional Hazaragi garment. In copyright. CCL-Hazara-1004 https://canterburystories.nz/collections/community/hazara-stories/ccl-cs-45954