Canadian branches of various INGOs such as Oxfam, sometimes in collaboration with other Church organizations (e.g., Quakers), provided material aid as well as political and democratic rights assistance. 

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​Salvadoran Refugees, Oxfam Canada, & Canadian Activism

An overwhelming reception for the mission with the refugees lining the roadway to the concert venue. Colomancagua, Honduras, ca. 1985; Meyer Brownstone / Oxfam International Fonds; Archives & Research Collections, Carleton University Library; MBOI-4-5-MBS-068

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Visual disruption

​CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE SEMIOTICS, VISUAL POLITICS, SOCIAL LIFE, and POTENTIAL HISTORY of these photographs.

For example: 

According to Meyer Brownstone, former Director of Oxfam Canada, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science

"humanitarian aid, from my perspective, if not simply food and medical supplies, but my understanding of the application of humanitarian aid has to do with every aspect of human rights, social and economic and political rights, everything that one understands as a right and everything that contributes to supporting those rights and provided externally, as it were, I would call it humanitarian aid, but each of the has its own characteristics of course, it's all very complex, but I would opt for that rather than a much narrower food aid, etcetera." 

Time stamp: 00:16:48

In the 1970s and 1980s:
Brownstone used photography as a mnemonic device rather than for activism. He couldn't be bothered to fuss with slide projectors. 

In 2015+:
The photographs are being returned to El Salvador, to the communities who were pictured in the Oxfam-Canada  photographic archive (Meyer Brownstone Fond - Carleton University). 

Photographic "returns" project.

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