‘Humanising’ Statelessness We suffered a lot, but we exist, they cannot take it away from us’. 112 Drik also strongly believes in Sahrawi identity, and stated that while they do not have much, they care strongly about who they are. He also mentioned that they protect their identity despite all the suffering. Some of them applied for Moroccan Nationality for money and comfort, but the majority would not accept them back into the community; the community would not think that they are Sahrawi anymore. 113 As I was listening to the interview, I felt a pain for Drik and his people. I immediately thought of over a million stateless Rohingya refugee people who reside in my country because their identity was stripped away as they suffered persecution in their country of origin, Myanmar. However, towards the end of the interview, Rabiaa asked Drik if he could connect the Sahrawi people with the plant world. Drik took some time and then suggested that they are like cacti. They survive in a desert with barely any resources. 114 After the interview I worked with Rabiaa to translate Drik’s perception and conception of the Western Sahrawi community. She wanted to visually interpret the concepts therein through the plant metaphor. We discussed whether the cacti could represent the Western Sahrawi community and Drik’s idea of identity, agency and survival. 115 I researched cacti and after reading about their characteristics I was also convinced that the situation Drik described could be interpreted as such. Found in deserts, cacti can survive in extremely difficult environments; to survive they have adapted by adopting distinctive physical and behavioural mechanisms. Cacti are drought resistant, do not have any leaves which reduces transpiration (loss of water in the air), they can store water in their long roots from a single period of rainfall and can use it for years. 116 Rabiaa also informed me that there are also specific types of desert cacti that can move through the desert. 117 Hence, Creative Court decided to use cacti as a metaphor to visualise and translate agency and represent the resilient nature of Western Sahrawi stateless people (Figure 5). 112 113 114 115 Interview with Drik (Rabiaa Benlahbib, transcribed 20 July 2019). ibid. ibid. Concept development meeting with Rabiaa Benlahbib, Director, Creative Court (Mizanur Rahman, Creative Court 22 July 2019). 116 For details, see Ravikiran Kulloli and Suresh Kumar, ‘Conservation of Cacti in the Desert Botanical Garden, Jodhpur, India’ (2017) 8(2) International Journal of Environmental Science 172, 179. 117 Concept development meeting with Rabiaa Benlahbib, Director, Creative Court (Mizanur Rahman, Creative Court 25 July 2019). 295