We are liberation workers who know a thing or two about design.
Our work is to remind you of your innate capacity to shape change, by practicing what it means to be good future ancestors and honoring our relational responsibility to each other, lands and waters, and the ecosystems we are part of.
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Sabrina (she/they) is the Founder and change alchemist at Pause and Effect. After more than a decade as a practicing designer, researcher, HR business partner and product manager, Sabrina poured her spirit and resources into building a brand that proudly lives into its values with integrity.
Sabrina is the descendant of Sindhi Muslim Gujarati ancestors, whom, through forced migration found home in East Africa and later, in so called Canada. She brings their lessons of survival through collective care and communal responsibility into her vision for flourishing futures.
Sabrina is a member of the Liberated Planet Studio - a practice space for artists and activists, interested in ecological and movement research at the intersection of social and environmental justice.
Outside of work with Pause and Effect, Sabrina satiates her imagination through sci-fi. She currently helps cultivate and tend to the Moberly Medicine Garden, and is co-establishing a mutual aid fieldhouse called the Earthseed Collective (with the mission of increased community climate resilience and food sovereignty through culturally-rooted programming) alongside Daniela Gurerrero-Rodrigues and Alisha Lettman.
Above all things, Sabrina is an Auntie who cares deeply about the world her niblings will inherit.
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mayed (any pronouns) is a collaborator at Pause and Effect, bringing an extensive background of community-based participatory design, emancipatory research, and trauma-centered practice.
mayed comes from a lineage of ancestors who tended to their native lands and waters as a primary form of sustenance and survival. Due to colonial violence and forced displacement, these relationships have been severed over multiple generations and cycles of loss.
mayed's identity is shaped by their background as a Muslim immigrant of Persian, Afghan, Indian, and Pakistani heritage, as well as lived experiences of queerness, Disability, and neurodivergence. Unravelling the work of colonization has led them through a process of reconciliation and remembrance.
mayed leads a fashion startup, Naranji, that is working toward disrupting the gender binary and reclaiming cultural fashion. As a multi-disciplinary creative, mayed has produced multiple exhibitions and runway shows. Their work has been featured across Japan, Pakistan, Thailand, and the United States of America.
mayed’s work and practice is rooted in principles of abolition and transformative justice. They wake up everyday with a heartful commitment to be a better future ancestor.
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My teachers are plentiful, and I know this long list isn’t near complete. All that you engage with through Pause and Effect has been shaped through relationship. My gratitude extends to the following beings and lands for inspiring, holding, teaching, and changing me.
Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh Host Nations, whom have remained steadfast in their resistance and defence of these lands and waters
Yusuf, my late Grandfather who's advice and prayers keep me here
Mother Earth (special shout out to Blackberry bush) who has nourished my body, held me through grief, and been a collaborator and teacher in my process
Octavia Butler, author of Parable of the Sower, for reminding me that change can be shaped through wisdom, forethought, community, and practice
Robin Wall-Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, for reminding me of the animacy of this world, and for helping me reconnect with the land through story
adrienne maree brown (author of Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Fables and Spells) for being a guiding light through the inception and continued emergence of Pause and Effect
Vanessa Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity and member of Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures
Mathura “Temwa” Mahendren, a dear friend who helped me uncover the playfull-est and free-ist version of me, showed me the art of shaping experiences through love, and is the brilliant author of Dismantling the Master’s Tools
Sophie Strand and Bayo Akamolafe for inspiring me to see weirdness as a revolutionary posture
Alisha Lettman and Métis Elder and herbalist, Lori Snyder, for modelling reciprocity through thoughtful stewardship of the Moberly Medicine Garden
Daniela Guerrero Rodrigues, for their encouragement and support as I’ve come to view myself as an artist. Daniela is an artist and intersectional emergency preparedness consultant
Eman Salem, my first coach, turned friend, who has shared their brilliance with our Reimagining Research cohort, and offers beautiful meditations
Dear friends Clementina Consens (artist and climate futurist) and Cherrie Lam (lead of the Vancouver Design Justice node), who were key contributors to Pause and Effect’s early growth
Liberated Planet Studio collective (for gifting me community to practice, move and create with)
Countless podcast episodes produced by For the Wild
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Who I am and how I practice is an emergent process, shaped through nurturing relationships and being present with community. I am deeply indebted to and grateful for the multitude of teachers, human and more-than-human, who have held me lovingly and created space for me to grow and transform. This list remains incomplete and forever growing.
my ancestors, known and yet to be known, for giving me the resilience and strength to continue resisting colonial violence and fighting for liberation and sovereignty
my grandmother, Nasreen, whose memory and presence is a constant reminder to meditate on love and allow myself to experience joy
the lands of the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa nations where I currently reside for providing me with a home to live, play, and experiment
Alok Vaid-Menon whose poetry and wisdom has allowed me to heal my inner child and embrace the parts of me that are often policed and silenced
Shirin Vossoughi, my dear mentor, who helped radicalize me and has largely shaped my craft as an educator and researcher
Moya Bailey, for helping me tap into the magic of my Disabled ancestors and kin
Chris Flanagan, a trusted partner and collaborator, who has been instrumental in helping me navigate systems change
Megan Bang, whose teachings have helped me deepen my connection to land, as well as unravel my own histories with (de)colonization
Lauren Lin, a dear friend and co-conspirator, who has been a sounding board for my musings and rants on design as creative liberation
Sue Soria, my lovely artist friend, who has inspired me to continue dreaming and imagining possibilities, even amidst times of despair
Michael Rakowitz, a brilliant artist and professor, who taught me how to express myself creatively and disrupt the status quo