'Truly inspirational': Immigrant Story exhibits 'indomitable' spirit in art form

Exhibition at Bathurst Clark Resource Library runs until Aug. 28

Yorkregion.com
July 14, 2022
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Aida Haroun, from Egypt, is a "one-person melting pot" in Toronto.

Like many with multilingual and culturally diverse backgrounds, Haroun's extensive linguistic repertoire only whets her appetite. "The more she knows, the more she wants to know."

Liona Boyd, from England, becomes Canada's "First Lady of the Guitar."

"How I got there--and here--involved hard work and perseverance as well as good fortune," said Boyd. "If it's clichéd to say that one is 'proudly Canadian', I may well add that I am gratefully Canadian."

Helen Waldstein Wilkes, from Prague, calls herself "accidentally alive" after fleeing the Holocaust.

"I am deeply grateful," said Wilkes. "I've been particularly fortunate to have been the recipient of countless acts of kindness on Canadian soil."

Thomas Sun, from Hong Kong, tranforms "from climbing tall buildings to designing them" in North America.

"I have been very lucky," said Sun. "I traded in one great country for another."

Haroun, Boyd, Wilkes and Sun are four of 57 brave souls who crossed mountains and oceans from 16 countries, landed in Canada and rooted slowly but deeply in local communities like Maple and Woodbridge in Vaughan.

Their stories are artistically displayed in the Immigrant Story exhibition at Bathurst Clark Resource Library in Thornhill from June 13 to Aug. 28, 2022.

"Everybody's story is special," Sholom Wargon, creator and developer of the exhibition, told the Vaughan Citizen in front of a sizable collage of images of the adventurous immigrants.

Sitting at the heart of the montage is Wargon's late wife, Erminia Tonelli, the muse of the project.

Wargon wrote an enthralling story about his "indomitable" wife, who lived her first 13 years in small-town Italy before immigrating to big-city Toronto, and who would "eat challenges for breakfast"--before ultimately succumbing to an incurable disease in 2017.

His eulogy reads: "You never stop living. You never stop loving. You never stop believing."

Wargon, 70, was born in Ottawa to an immigrant father and Toronto-born mother. At the exhibit, a tribute is paid to his father, who immigrated from Poland in 1927.

He jokes that his father, a prolific film director and talented fine artist, prefers his tractor to his children. "He's still driving it at age 97," Wargon chuckled.

Wargon hasn't faced the kinds of challenges that confronted his parents and grandparents: war, poverty, famine, plague, oppression. But the recent pandemic has given him a sobering look at the kinds of calamities his forebears had to surmount.

"Their stories of strength, courage, determination, and sacrifice--and the work ethic that typically accompanied these qualities--exemplify the immigrant spirit," he said.

Wargon himself wrote more than half the stories; other authors, several of them award-winning, contributed the rest. He prides himself on the literary standard the project upholds.

"One of my ideas with this project was to elevate the immigrant story to an art form," he said. "So they're displayed like pieces of art."

The large-print story panels feature a newspaper-style layout designed for easier reading from distance; ironically, it works out well with the pandemic because of physical distancing.

The current exhibit at the library is its second stop after a successful launch in 2021 at the Columbus Centre's Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery in North York.

The exhibit includes gripping images of Chinese railway workers, dubbed "disrespected trailblazers" in reference to injustices suffered while building the Canadian Pacific Railway.

"We devote this growing collection of stories to the brave souls who paved the way to the better tomorrow we are now experiencing," writes Wargon in the opening panel's mission statement.

Vaughan Public Libraries believes the exhibition is symbolic of the commitment to welcoming newcomers and sharing their stories.

"Libraries provide an opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds and understand other cultures, which in turn enhances our city and promotes stronger ties between neighbours," said Lisa McDonough, deputy CEO of customer experience at Vaughan Public Libraries.

"It's great to know the lives of fellow early pioneer immigrants," said Teresa Panezutti, whose story is also included in the immigrantstory.ca exhibition. "Truly inspirational."