Sometimes it can feel like the word “community” is used so much that it’s become a feel-good buzzword. But beneath the shiny-happy veneer of the word “community,” there’s a lot of valuable work to be done, and we’re exploring that work through a collection of stories this week.

In our cover feature, photographer Daniel Crump spoke to (and photographed) a few men in an effort to document the pitfalls of current understandings of masculinity. Through this photo feature, he shows some of the parts of themselves that these subjects lost – and found – as they questioned everything they’d learned about how to exist in this world.

This week’s column questions how settlers relate to the land they’re on and to the business of how land is owned, traded and occupied. Jase Falk draws parallels between the community-building intentions of acknowledging the treaties and original Indigenous inhabitants of the land and the work that’s necessary to move these acknowledgements into action. There’s no script for this work or easy answers to the questions they’re asking.

In the comments section, Christina Hajjar reviews and reflects on a Creative Practice panel at the recent C2C: Two-Spirit (2S) & QPOC (queer People of Colour): A Call to Conversation with LGBT and Allies conference. Hajjar explores critical questions of belonging, fragmentation and privilege within communities and calls for support from allies, as well.

These real tasks of building community hold challenges and benefits and start at the very basic level of relating to oneself and others.

– Anastasia Chipelski

Published in Volume 72, Number 8 of The Uniter (November 2, 2017)