That's What [We] Said

INTRODUCTION

Dear Reader,

Thank you for picking up Volume 8 of That’s What We Said! We are so excited to have you here with us! Let the theme, WHAT IF, take you to places you never thought imaginable, make you question what is possible, and move you to not only imagine utopias, but create them.

We realize that in our current cultural, economic, and sociopolitical moment, this can be difficult to do. Our world can often feel unimaginable; we are constantly tugged to-and-fro within a society defined by polarization, hypocrisy, desensitization, violence, and genocide. Everything is becoming increasingly unaffordable and unsustainable, further widening the gaps in socioeconomic disparities and making unhoused communities more vulnerable to stigma, violence, and oppression. Powerful figures are not being held accountable for unspeakable acts. Indigenous land continues to be exploited, leading us all into a climate disaster. Global powers are breaching international law without consequences, committing mass genocides and war crimes on a global scale. We have seen a resurgence in racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, classist, and misogynistic propaganda, stripping rights from and escalating violence against already oppressed communities. Unfortunately, to list all of the atrocities taking place would mean to fill this entire page. These atrocities may be unimaginable, but they are very real. We feel them on a daily basis, and, for many, they have made the world unlivable. We do not ask WHAT IF to shy away from these collective realities, but to confront them and to manifest a reality without them. As an Editorial Collective, we recognize that we are in a very privileged position to be able to live through, speak on, and question these systems in order to imagine a better world. Many people do not get this opportunity. Therefore, we want to use our platform to uplift the message of WHAT IF through a variety of lenses, amplifying ideas of radical change. 

Through this journal, we hope to give you a space to imagine otherwise and explore the possibilities that live within the folds of the chaos and violence. What better way to do this than to ask: WHAT IF? By posing our theme as a question, we wanted to invite curiosity and encourage submitters to think beyond the systems and structures that restrain us. After all, the act of questioning is a political tool; questioning the “way things are” is how we learn, move forward, and radicalize ourselves and our world. We think of WHAT IF not only as a question, but also as a noun, a process, and a way of being and becoming. It does not play by the rules, so neither do we. 

Change starts with imagination—imagining what that change can be and how we can craft it. One way to do this is through art and storytelling. In A History of My Brief Body, Billy Ray Belcourt reminds us that “we need to write against the unwritability of utopia” (9). We asked our submitters: “WHAT IF you published your utopias, your curiosities, your what if’s?” and they went above and beyond. This year, we received a record-breaking 47 submissions! We were very moved by the array of creativity, imagination, and critical questioning that shone through all of the pieces and we want to thank our submitters for entrusting us with their work. They showed us how WHAT IF is not only situated within futurity; it exists everywhere, crumbling time as a fixed, linear model and turning it into an ocean, where alternate histories and realities can collide and blossom as something new. They showed us how WHAT IF is embodied; we carry it with us in the marrow of our bones; it moves us through this world and challenges what we think we know about our existence. They showed us how WHAT IF ruptures the threshold between possibility and impossibility. 

Without further ado, let our questions and imaginations grow like weeds and wildflowers over our current system, so that they may bloom into collective action and bring our queer, decolonial, and relational utopias to life.

In solidarity, 

The That’s What We Said Editorial Collective for 2026

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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Before we begin to celebrate the publication of this journal, the team at That’s What We Said would like to take a moment, not just to make a land acknowledgement, but to reflect on what acknowledging the land that we are situated on means to us as students, writers, dreamers, and members of this Editorial Collective. 

UBC Okanagan was established in 2005, not in spite of the presence of Indigenous communities on these lands, but in direct collaboration with the Sylix Okanagan Nation. It is important for all of us to remember that UBC Okanagan would not be able to exist without the consent and support of the Okanagan Nation Alliance, which welcomed UBC to the Syilx Okanagan territory at an official ceremony, Knaqs npi’lsmist, in September 2005 (UBC, Indigenous engagement). This means that the history of this campus, which is coming up on its 21st anniversary next September, is directly intertwined with the storied history of the Sylix Okanagan people and their unceded land on which we are currently settled. We believe that it is essential that we go beyond simply acknowledging the objective fact that we are on unceded territory, especially because many corporations and institutions, such as UBC itself, continue to  stay silent and hold shares in settler colonial genocides and occupations from Turtle Island to Palestine. We should instead make actionable efforts to hold respectful and reciprocal relationships with the land, the Sylix Okanagan people, and with lands and Indigenous Peoples across the globe.  

This is especially timely, considering that April 2026 is the one-year anniversary of a lawsuit being filed in the B.C Supreme Court by UBC faculty members, calling to ban UBC and UBC Okanagan from engaging in what they labelled “political activity”. One of their main requests was “an order prohibiting and restraining UBC from acknowledging that UBC is on unceded Indigenous land and prohibiting UBC from requiring or encouraging other persons to declare or acknowledge that UBC is on unceded Indigenous land” (Irvine, et all, Petition to Court). Not only is this statement disrespectful to Indigenous students, staff, and faculty members who are part of UBC, but it is also harmful for future efforts to work towards decolonisation and upholding the tenets of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Instead of working with Indigenous communities to further support them and work away from settler dominance, the world seems to be moving in the opposite direction. 

However, in tandem with the theme of our journal this year, WHAT IF, we want to invite our readers to imagine different possibilities. What if Land Back was honoured and land was returned to its’ original stewards? What if Indigenous Land Defenders were listened to and the construction of pipelines and other exploitative infrastructure was halted immediately? What if we were able to accept the fact that we are settlers on this land, sit in that discomfort, and emerge bravely from it to become stronger allies in the process? What if we listened to Indigenous elders and their teachings, and put their knowledge into practice to decolonise our academic institutions? What if we learned how to love the land, and therefore, each other? 

These are the questions that we would like to extend towards you, our readers. The Editorial Collective this year is made up of LGBTQIA+ individuals, women, immigrants, and otherwise racialised students and creatives, whose existences on this land are intertwined with the past, present and futures of the Sylix Okanagan people. Therefore, we ask you to respectfully keep this in mind while reading and enjoying this year’s issue of That’s What We Said, and remember to exist in the knowledge that we are not only situated on Indigenous land, but that we are also part of this land, and our thoughts, actions, and beliefs upon this land make a real difference. 

Limləmt

Works Cited

“Indigenous Engagement.” UBC’s Okanagan Campus, 3 Sept. 2025, ok.ubc.ca/about/indigenous-engagement/. 

ANDREW IRVINE, NATHAN COCKRAM, BRAD EPPERLY, CHRISTOPHER KAM and MICHAEL TRESCHOW vs. UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, Petition to the Court, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MGdpZ4bjl6uxqzocjn2whd84fI_Accyq/view

 

EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE

Ally Shorter (she/her)

Riya Gupta (she/her)

Simar Sandhu (she/her)

Soha Aftab (they/her)

Leahna Afseth (she/her)

Juhi Sarvaiya (she/her)

Abi Creswick (they/them)

 

COVER ARTIST & GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Abi Creswick (they/them)

 

LEAD COORDINATOR 

Ally Shorter (she/her)

 

COMMUNICATIONS & SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER

Ally Shorter (she/her)

Contributors: Simar Sandhu (she/her) & Riya Gupta (she/her)

 

FINANCE COORDINATORS

Soha Aftab (they/her)

Leahna Afseth (she/her)

 

ART COORDINATOR

Leahna Afseth (she/her)

 

FACULTY LIAISON

Sue Frohlick (she/they)

 

A note on citation styles - Our journal embraces a dynamic approach to citations, diverging from rigid adherence to a single citation style or strict formal guidelines. This deliberate deviation is rooted in our commitment to fostering accessibility and promoting artistic expression. By allowing flexibility in citation practices, we aim to create a welcoming platform that encourages diverse voices and facilitates a more engaging and inclusive reading experience, while still honouring where our knowledge comes from and its interconnected uses within our submissions.