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Digital Handloom is an interdisciplinary storytelling and community engagement practice. Our work is rooted in community-based storytelling and relationship-building steeped in empathy and authenticity. 

Our projects span creative writing, exhibition curation, government relations, strategic communications and issues management, and we approach all our work with a decolonizing, anti-racist framework. 

Our approach to each project includes research, deep analysis, conversations, and connecting your story with your community. We’re fortunate to work with leading creative organizations, non-profits, government bodies and social enterprises across Canada.

 
Manjot Bains - Digital Handloom communications strategy

  • PRINCIPAL + SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT
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    Manjot Bains wrote and illustrated her first work of fiction about underwater time travel when she was in Grade 5. Since then, her writing has appeared in a number of creative, online and corporate publications, including Geist Magazine and Huffington Post. She has worked as a communications professional for over fifteen years, specializing in strategic communications, issues management, storytelling, and copywriting. Manjot brings an anti-racism lens to her communications and writing practice, and has spoken about systemic racism on a number of panels, podcasts and media conversations.

    A creative entrepreneur, Manjot has led two online businesses: ANARA, a modern textiles brand, and Jugni Style, an online magazine for South Asian arts, cultures and ideas. As Editor-in-Chief of Jugni Style, she interviewed and wrote a number of short and long-form profiles of interesting people and topics, and produced the first two seasons of The Nameless Collective Podcast, which was featured on CBC Radio, Walrus Magazine, Vancouver Magazine, and International Public History Journal. She is a past board member of the BC Arts Council, Indian Summer Arts Society, and City of Vancouver Multiculturalism Advisory Committee.

 
Naveen Girn - Digital Handloom community engagement strategy

  • PARTNER + STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS CONSULTANT
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    Naveen Girn is a community engagement and stakeholder relations leader whose work centres around intercultural dialogue, storytelling and community engagement strategies. Naveen brings best practices in engagement to organizations seeking to connect with constituents, staff and communities. As an award-winning curator, he applies these strategies to storytelling projects, exhibitions, workshops, and public forums. Naveen co-curated the award-winning Bhangra.me: Vancouver’s Bhangra Story (2011) exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver, Spectacular Sangeet (2013) at the Surrey Art Gallery, and An Ocean of Peace: 100 Years of Sikhs in New Westminster (2020). In 2014, Naveen was Project Manager for the Komagata Maru 1914-2014: Generations, Geographies and Echoes project that brought together eight institutions across Metro Vancouver to collaboratively commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Komagata Maru.

    Naveen worked as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Stakeholder Relations in the BC Premier’s Office, and previously worked as the Director of Community Outreach for the City of Vancouver Mayor’s Office. Naveen is co-host of The Nameless Collective Podcast, which uncovers untold stories from Vancouver’s past, and often speaks at public events and to the media about intercultural dialogue, community history, storytelling, and community engagement.

 

MEDIA FEATURES