Imagine Antigonish: A Photographic Inquiry into Health Equity explores how art, memory, and community intersect to illuminate the roots of health equity in a rural Canadian town.Founded in appreciative inquiry and inspired by the global Imagine movement, this richly visual book builds on the resounding success of the 2014 Imagine Antigonish photo exhibit. Co-authors Dorothy Lander and John Graham-Pole—two of the original exhibit’s coordinators—dig deeper into the images, applying scholarly research to uncover the untold stories behind the photographs.
With a focus on the social determinants of health equity, the authors reconstruct the community’s historical narrative, revealing a vibrant tapestry of resilience, care, and justice. By bringing the past into dialogue with the present, Imagine Antigonish offers more than reflection—it’s a call to action that invites readers to see Antigonish as a microcosm: a community whose lessons, challenges, and triumphs can inform the future of all communities.
What if we, too, could learn from our past to reimagine a more just, healthy, and equitable world?
$26.95
Dorothy Lander is an author, educator, and cofounder of HARP Publishing, a Canadian independent press dedicated to decolonializing voices through the healing arts. With a background in education and community development, Dorothy’s work focuses on storytelling as a tool for articulating and celebrating the social determinants of health equity. She has contributed to projects exploring Indigenous-settler relations and leads initiatives that amplify marginalized perspectives through publishing and public engagement.
John Graham-Pole is a British-trained physician, educator, and author with over fifty years of experience in pediatric oncology, palliative care, and medical teaching. He has taught and practiced at four universities and is known for his compassionate approach to medicine and storytelling. John’ s work highlights the human side of healthcare, emphasizing the vital roles of both the nursing profession and the creative arts in medicine. John retired to live with his wife Dorothy Lander in Antigonish, where they both founded and run HARP Publishing.
To find blogs that relate directly back to this title, Imagine Antigonish: A Photographic Inquiry into Health Equity, check out “Speaking Truth to Power—Speaking Truth to History,” published September 5, 2024; “The Idea of a University BRAND,” published August 19, 2024; “Two Photos Mark a Century of Health Innovation Antigonish, Nova Scotia,” published July 25, 2024; and finally, “Symbolic Ground Turning for the Dahdaleh Institute for Innovation in Health at StFX: A Visual Message of Priorities?” published July 6, 2024.
“This work goes beyond nostalgia, signaling us towards a fairer, healthier shared future.”
Founded in appreciative inquiry and the global Imagine movement, Imagine Antigonish: A Photographic Inquiry into Health Equity explores the arts for health equity through the images of one community’s past. Inspired by the resounding success of the 2014 Imagine Antigonish photo exhibit, two of the exhibit’s coordinators—coauthors Dorothy Lander and John Graham Pole— apply scholarly research techniques to uncover the stories behind the photographs. With an eye to the social determinants of health equity (SDHE), the authors restore the rural Canadian community’s rich historical narrative, ultimately revealing a vibrant tapestry of health and social equity. Building upon this tapestry, they invite the reader to imagine Antigonish as a microcosm for all communities, suggesting we ponder what if—what if our community learned lessons from the past to create a better future?
9781990137693
6 x 9 | 148 pages
