Mending

Presented in collaboration with RQCALACS (Réseau québécois des centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel), Mending is a co-creation project imagined by Place Courage to honor the daily work of calacs’ workers and create a space for shared care.

Through textile art, we explored the gesture of visible repair as a metaphor. Each stitch, each added piece of fabric became an assumed trace, a gesture that reveals rather than conceals. Inspired by the practices of visible repair – darning, patching and embroidery – this encounter offered a chance to slow down, reconnect, take stock of the work accomplished, and reflect on how community can sustain and strengthen itself.

This collective work celebrates care and resilience to value what has been weakened rather than hidden, to pay attention to stories and to transform repair into a form of expression, beauty and affirmation.

Mending highlighted the discreet strength of the workers who, every day, accompany survivors and forge links to rebuild the social fabric. The project offered them a moment of respite, reflection and creation, while paying tribute to their commitment.

Underpinned by a participatory and inclusive approach, the day invited participants to consider repair not as mere restoration, but as a meaningful transformation, where each scar becomes a story to be honored.

“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change.”
– Octavia Butler


Mending was made possible thanks to the support of Espace Fabrik. We would like to thank Camélia St-Cyr Robitaille, director and founder of Espace Fabrik, for all the coordination work that made this project possible.

RQCALACS (Réseau québécois des centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel) is dedicated to fostering the exchange of expertise between its member centers, supporting the search for solutions to curb sexual assault and ensuring the development of intersectional feminist intervention services for women and girls. Centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (CALACS) are autonomous, feminist community organizations. CALACS embody over 40 years of expertise in the field of sexual assault.