The author’s family posing for a family portrait. Photo courtesy of Adam Arca.
Congratulations to Adam Arca for winning the creative non-fiction category of Briarpatch Magazine‘s annual “Writing in the Margins” contest!
In his essay titled “Waste // Sayang”, Adam reflects on migrant life, labour, and care from the Philippines to Canada, offering a powerful and thought-provoking perspective.
“I wonder why our ancestors became humans when we could’ve become butterflies. Why people created borders when we could’ve been free.”
Adam Arca is a Master’s Student in the School of Population and Public Health and a student in the CMS Graduate Certificate in Migration Studies program. Adam’s research engages with community-based, intersectional, and anti-colonial/imperial praxis to examine the relationships between migrant status, migrant labor, care, and the experiences of racialized, gendered, and queer bodies. He is particularly interested in migrant labor and welfare movements, as well as grassroots activism to and from the Philippines. His current work explores the intimate connections between discard/waste studies and migrant care workers.
