Sharing Our Cultures returns, holding biggest event in the diversity showcase's history
Event includes students from Conne River and different communities in Labrador
The sound of drummers and African music as well as colourful displays filled The Rooms on Sunday, when it hosted the annual Sharing Our Cultures event for the 23rd time.
For Sharing Our Cultures CEO and founder Lloydetta Quaicoe, it was exciting to see how much the event has grown over the years. This year's is the biggest ever, featuring 33 cultural displays by 125 students.
"I don't think there are any words to describe how I feel," said Quaicoe. "It's just great … when I look back at the very small beginning and to see how the community has come together to support us."
Sharing Our Cultures gives students with diverse backgrounds from across Newfoundland and Labrador a platform to talk about their countries' traditions and cultures. The event is held annually to coincide with International Francophonie Day on March 20, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21, and provincial Multiculturalism Month.
This year, students from Conne River as well as Labrador attended, including the Drummers Heartbeat group and students from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu and Northwest River.
"It's really great to be able to have an opportunity to bring together Indigenous youth and newcomer youth and local youth together so they can learn about each other's histories and cultures and build positive relationships," said Quaicoe.
"They get to wear their traditional clothing, they get to to speak their language and they get to talk to other people about what's important to them."
Offering students an event in which they can have sense of belonging, said Quaicoe, hasn't lost any of its significance over the past two decades.
"It's feeling a sense of place. It's feeling a sense of this is part of my home, too," said Quaicoe. "You can always be called an immigrant, you can always be called 'refugee,' you can always be called, 'Oh, the newcomers.' But when you're able to be here and share your culture and have other people interested in who you are and your identity, it really means a lot to the students."
Sharing Our Cultures, said Quaicoe, was started when she realized many newcomer students to the province felt isolated and had problems integrating into the school system, often experiencing racially motivated bullying. The idea for an event to share their cultures with teachers, and visitors generally, was born.
To get students on board and then bring their visions to life, Emilie Marchal, Sharing Our Cultures' bilingual project co-ordinator, starts visiting different schools at the beginning of the school year.
The process often turns her into a student, as well — learning about the participants' projects but also about cultural background, traditions, food and values.
"The way the family works together, the way they work with the community, the way they [eat] some food," said Marchal.
"Seeing the smile on the face when you take interest in that and when you ask them questions about where they come from, about the way they usually do things … all of this process there and this connection has just been amazing."
For Marchal, it's important that event visitors have the same learning experience she has throughout the school year.
"I really wish that they can go home with a little piece of something, that they're going to remember something," said Marchal.
"But also that being here, among all of those students, coming from so many different countries, to be like, 'Wow, this is the kind of world that we want to see outside of this walls.' That everybody, no matter your colour, no matter your origin or your religion, like we can be one beside the other."
The event continues until Wednesday.
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