'Passage migratoire' ('Migratory Passage'), an art installation by Giorgia Volpe in Old Québec City, Québec, Canada

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Celebrating migrations

For Canada Day, we're peering up at 'Passage migratoire' ('Migratory Passage'), an art installation of hanging woven canoes in Old Québec City. It was part of the 2016 edition of Passages Insolites (Unusual Passages), an annual public art exhibition in the historic Petit-Champlain and Saint-Roch districts of the city. The canoe has long been associated with Canada's national history, linked with early explorers, fur traders, Indigenous peoples, and colonists who ventured out into the wilderness of the great north. The artist behind this installation, Giorgia Volpe, was inspired by 'the idea of migration and its influence on the formation of our society and our territory.' Canada welcomes on average about 200,000 immigrants each year, many of whom will become Canadian citizens. The migrations continue…