Afghanistan's ethnic Hazara people's homeland is located in the centre of the country in a region they refer to as the Hazarajat. This photo series is meant to bring you into the Hazaras' world by showcasing their homeland and culture. The goal of this series is to allow you to get to know a group of people who rarely make it into the Western press, yet have suffered so much in Afghanistan.

Eastern Sudan lies at a fascinating crossroad of cultures and traditions. Bordering Eritrea and Ethiopia, this unique region is a multi-cultural melting pot of people from vast swathes of Africa and the Middle East. The tribes here exist in relative harmony with each other, most all follow a form of Sunni Islam, with the mystic Sufi orders popular. Dervishes, music, camels, markets and advanced smuggling routes are all part of the day to day in this region.

The ancient city of Meroë was the capital of the Nubian Kingdom of Kush from c. 591 BCE to 350 CE. Its emperors and nobles were buried in Nubian pyramids, modeled off their Egyptian counterparts. Today, Meroë feels almost forgotten in time. Partially destroyed by European treasure hunters in the 19th century, Sudan’s pyramids stand spectacularly isolated— the largest current threat to their continued existence are the encroachnig desert sands.

Sudan is one of the largest exprters of camels in the world, having the second highest number of camels on earth. Destined for both the high end racing world of the Arabian Gulf as well as the meat markets of Cairo, these animals are bought and sold at the El Molih market on the outskirts of Khartoum twice weekly. Here, they are sold and lifted into awaiting trucks to make their journey across the desert to Egypt or to the Red Sea in order to be shipped to Saudi Arabia.

The Mbuti Pygmies are nomadic hunter-gatherers from Congo’s Ituri Rainforest. They are among the oldest indigenous groups in central Africa and have avoided external pressures to abandon their traditional practices and integrate into modern society. However, their way of life is continuously at risk. The Mbuti have no legal protection over their territory, and their food supply is threatened by deforestation, mining, and civil unrest.

Kandahar, like most of Afghanistan, is only seen from a limited perspective to the eyes of the world. It has been portrayed as the birthplace of the Taliban, where Mullah Omar prayed with Osama Bin Laden. But there’s another, often unseen side to Afghanistan’s second-largest city. Set against both desert and mountains, the area is a political and cultural hub for the country’s Pashtun people extending back over a history of 2000 years.

The Wixárika live in the remote Sierra Occidental mountains in central Mexico. This small minority group exists in isolation from much of Mexican society, carrying on their pre-columbian traditions revolving around the spiritual consumption of peyote, a psychedelic cactus. Every year, members from the community travel to Wirikuta in the scrub deserts of northerneastern Mexico on a pilgrimage to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors and forage for wild peyote.

Roasted coffee as a beverage was first documented to have originated in the craggy Sarawat Mountains between Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the 15th century. It’s not a stretch to call these mountains the birthplace of coffee as we know it. Today, around 700 farming families on the Saudi side of the border continue harvesting coffee on an artisanal scale. For locals, coffee is not simply a drink; it is a piece of their heritage.

The Rub’ al-Khali, or “Empty Quarter,” is Arabia’s most unforgiving and desolate desert. While it stretches thousands of kilometres across four countries, few people live here. For those who do, life has changed little over the last several hundred years. Camels, fire, family, goats, tribal traditions and Islam dominate life for the ethnic Mehri Bedouin of Yemen’s Empty Quarter.

A bird’s eye view of central Yemen shows vast, barren plateaus of sandstone. However, upon closer inspection, you will find deep canyons lined with small mudbrick villages. Along the bottom, abaya-clad women with pointy straw hats graze goats along ancient riverbeds. But bucolic life in these valleys is not as simple as it may appear; Al Qaeda continues to have an ebbing and flowing influence over these socially conservative valleys.

Mexican street art’s origins are rooted in nationalist Mexican muralism from the 1920s. Today’s street art continues with this tradition, but with a twist. Rather than painting only a unified version of what Mexican identity is, artists today paint from their neighbourhoods; they showcase local traditions, ethnic identity, native history, women’s rights, all dripping with social commentary.

Afghanistan and tourism are not exactly synonymous, at least not since the hippy trail days of the 1960s. The country has been in a near-constant state of war and upheaval since the Soviet invasion. This is nothing new to Afghanistan, in fact, it was the calm years of the mid-1950s that were, in fact, unusual. However, as stability has come in fragile waves to parts of the country, the idea of tourism is being revisited.

Every winter the Canadian Armed Forces undertakes a multi-unit sovereignty and training exercise in the Arctic. The purpose of this operation is to train troops in harsh Arctic conditions, teach essential survival skills, and defend Canada's territorial integrity with the help of First Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, who are local Inuit reservists.