Meet the Voices Behind the Vision
Somia Sadiq
Somia Sadiq is a Pakistani Canadian peace negotiator, planner, and award-winning entrepreneur with ancestral roots in post-colonial Punjab and Kashmir. She is the founder of Narratives, an acclaimed planning and design firm that centers human-centric, trauma-informed story work to amplify lived experience and ancestral identity. As the founder of Kahanee, Somia brings her expertise in conflict transformation to amplify storytelling and facilitated dialogue as tools for peacebuilding, both in Canada and globally. Somia began her career in impact assessment, focusing on resource, energy, and infrastructure projects. Her doctoral research explores identity, othering, and trauma in conflict transformation, deepening her commitment to creating space for marginalized voices. A published author and sought-after keynote speaker, she shares insights on trauma-informed leadership, women's leadership, and cultivating resilience in a rapidly changing world. Recognized nationally and internationally, Somia was recently inducted into the Canadian Institute of Planners' College of Fellows, the highest honor in the profession. She is currently completing her debut novel, Gajarah, set to release in Fall 2025.
Métis land designer Desirée Theriault reveals how public spaces hold memory, grief, and resilience. Moving beyond static monuments, her trauma-informed work treats the land as a living archive. By weaving Indigenous resurgence into urban landscapes, she shows how intentional design honors hidden histories, fosters collective healing, and deeply reconnects us to the earth.
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Urban planner Donovan Toews explores how cities communicate their core values through subtle, practical details; from mature tree canopies to street cleanliness. Viewing public space as a network of relationships, he highlights how intentional design and inclusive naming build an atmosphere of care, safety, and true belonging for everyone who inhabits the community.
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Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum explores what makes a space sacred, distinguishing heart connections from soul connections to land. Reflecting on women in peacebuilding and human complexity, she shows how honoring multiple, overlapping sacred relationships, without ranking them, cultivates humility and serves as a powerful form of quiet peacebuilding.
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A conversation with Métis tattoo and mural artist Justine Proulx explores creativity, storytelling, and belonging. Through tattoos, murals, and community art, the piece examines how visual expression reshapes personal and collective identity, creating spaces that reflect who we are and where we come from.
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This reflection explores a conversation with Isha Khan, CEO of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, on leadership, systemic change, and the importance of slowing down to engage with complex human stories.
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This reflection explores how stories shared during impact assessments can hold deeper knowledge about relationships, responsibility, and our connection to the land. It challenges practitioners to move beyond extracting data and instead listen for the worldviews, teachings, and questions embedded within stories.
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This reflection explores how storytelling can transform conflict by helping people move beyond the narratives that keep them stuck. Drawing on Gajarah and peacebuilding traditions from around the world, it argues that lasting change begins not with agreement, but with a shift in the stories we carry about ourselves and one another.
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A childhood memory of conflict expressed through an extra-spicy meal becomes a reflection on how culture shapes the ways we communicate, protest, and care. The post explores why planners and peacebuilders must look beyond words to understand the emotional and cultural dimensions of conflict.
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Kahanee Founder, Somia Sadiq, emphasizes that cultural competence comes from relational learning and shared experiences.
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We've all heard about legendary storytellers when bringing people together. But who is a story listener... Are you one?
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