Western P.E.I. celebrates diversity with welcome event for newcomers
'We would like them to stay, and also to be well integrated with the community'
Members of P.E.I.'s Filipino community spearheaded an event in West Prince Saturday to welcome a growing number of newcomers to the Island.
People from all kinds of backgrounds gathered at Hernewood School in Woodstock, P.E.I. and shared music, food, dancing and traditions from their cultures.
Leti LaRosa is originally from the Philippines, and has been living on the Island for 40 years. She helped organize the event called Neighbour to Neighbour Festivity, along with the Rural Action Centre in Alberton, P.E.I.
She says it's important to have events like this in smaller, rural areas outside of big city centres where other multicultural events are already held. She hopes this type of gathering encourages newcomers to feel welcome and stay and settle on the Island.
"We would like them to stay, and also to be well integrated with the community. And to be able to do that, the community has to know them. And this is the best way for the community to learn about our culture," she said.
Growing diverse community on P.E.I.
LaRosa estimates there are about 2,000 people from the Philippines living on the Island. That's a big increase from when she moved here.
She said when she first arrived, she and her husband were the only people from the Philippines in their community. She said it was difficult at first, especially finding the kind of ingredients she was used to cooking and eating.
She used to have to travel to Halifax for much of her food shopping, but now she can get everything on P.E.I.
Many of the people moving from the Philippines to Canada arrive as temporary foreign workers who get jobs in the agriculture sector and fish plants, people such as Maria Fe Chua. She lives in Alberton and has been here for about four years and recently became a permanent resident of Canada.
"I feel free … I don't have the scary feeling that I might be going home, and back home I don't have a good job," she said.
Previously, she worked abroad in Taiwan for nine years and more recently at a fish plant in New Brunswick. She now works in the office at Kildare Fisheries Ltd. She said this kind of event helps a lot, especially for people who are away from their families like herself.
Welcoming newcomers
"It is a way of reaching out to people … You feel more welcome … We need that."
Jose Rosario, originally from Mexico, attended with a few of his friends who are temporary foreign workers. He has a job packaging potatoes and had a good time learning about other cultures and tasting the variety of foods from Filipino food to local cuisine like seafood chowder and baked P.E.I. potatoes.
Rosario, who has been in P.E.I. for five months, is working in Canada to help support his wife and three children in Mexico. He said it makes him happy to see this welcoming event, while being away from loved ones.
"It's good, very good."
Local Indigenous culture
Indigenous performers shared part of their Mi'kmaq culture with traditional drumming and dancing.
Shelly Campbell lives in Tyne Valley, P.E.I., and moved here from the island of Nevis in the Caribbean. She's lived on the Island for 30 years, but was excited to share her culture at the event.
"I am extremely proud of my culture." said Campbell.
"If we don't have events like this, we would all be here, all the immigrants would be here, in our little corners in our safe worlds in our house. And we'll never know or be exposed to different cultures. So this is really meaningful," said Campbell.
Learning about different cultures
Organizers say the event was in the works for months and not in response to an incident at the Tignish Legion last month where a Sikh man was asked to remove his turban, leading to widespread backlash and an apology from the legion.
However, they say it's important that people do learn about each other's cultures.
"It's really important for the community to understand that we do have a lot of newcomers to our region," said Maxine Rennie, executive director of the Rural Action Centre and the CBDC in Alberton.
"We have seen some coming in as temporary foreign workers within some of our seasonal workforce, but a lot of them are now looking at becoming permanent residents," said Rennie.
She said many in the community are excited by the growing diversity, and people wanted to celebrate the newcomers and welcome them and show them they are valued.
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