Priyanka is an artist. She feels deeply and laughs loudly. She is a wife and mother in a culture where women are traditionally expected to stay in the home. But she doesn’t want to stay home–she wants to explore and create. She has often felt like an outsider…a weirdo.

When Priyanka attended The Create Commission’s two week artist residency in New Delhi, she felt accepted as herself for the first time. She felt at peace, happy, included. It felt like sacred space.

The residency took Priyanka and the other artists to one of the city’s largest landfills, where they got to experience what life is like for rag pickers, India’s untouchables.

The residency took Priyanka and the other artists to one of the city’s largest landfills, where they got to experience what life is like for rag pickers, India’s untouchables.

Priyanka’s heart broke for the children–walking on heaps of dangerous trash with no shoes, taking care of newborns when they should be playing with dolls, sorting through garbage with their own babies in tow when they should be in high school.

As the residency went on, the artists and mentors were challenged to wrestle with what they were seeing and learning both through creating art and in group conversations. Whose waste is it that builds up those mountains? How do we treat rag pickers when we come in contact with them? What’s our responsibility? What do rag pickers desire in life? What’s at the root of this brokenness? Where is God in all this despair?

Priyanka, just like every other member of the group, struggled to find hope for the ragpicker community. But as she listened and learned, she realized that–like herself, like all people–rag pickers want to be recognized as valuable human beings. They want to be heard and acknowledged. Change starts there.

On the last weekend of the residency, the artists went back to the landfill, art pieces in hand. One artist pasted colorful paper flowers over the arch leading into to the landfill. A photographer gave each child their own portrait. Priyanka prepared a workshop for the children–instructing them to draw what they dream of becoming as she played soothing music. She wanted them to hold on to these pictures, and their dreams, for years to come.