Gathering over food is considered one of the best ways to get to know someone, and that’s exactly what happened at the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination potluck dinner and celebration on March 21.
Foothills Community Immigration Services (FCIS) hosted its third annual international potluck last week to celebrate an international cultural event that began 53 years ago.
“It’s good to see everybody here,” said Mayor Bill Robertson of the event. “It’s pretty significant, we have certainly a number of immigrants within the town of Okotoks, we welcome everybody, we want everybody to feel as inclusive as possible.
“Their success is our success, so whatever we can do to make them feel welcome and help them integrate into Canadian society, I’m totally in support of.”
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was started in 1966 by the General Assembly, and the United Nations has celebrated March 21 ever since.
According to the UN.org website, the day is held in remembrance of March 21, 1960 when police opened fire and killed 69 peaceful protestors at a
demonstration against apartheid “pass laws” in South Africa. As racial discrimination has changed over the years, the day has come to mean many different things to different cultures and countries.
For the Foothills, it’s about learning more about each other and enjoying the diversity of the community.
“It’s just about experiencing different cultures in our community and making sure everyone is welcome,” said Mariah Nadeau, volunteer co-ordinator for FCIS.
Held in partnership with the Baha’i Faith group, the event has only gotten bigger over the last three years, with this year’s event seeing about 100 attendees.
“The first one it was literally just the potluck with about only 50 people or so,” said Nadeau. “Last year it grew to about 80 to 90 people and they had Fil-Can, which is the Filipino Association here in Okotoks, as well as a Mexican group that’s based out of High River do performances.”
This year the event saw performances by Fil-Can and a Serbian dance group, as well as featuring keynote speaker Judith Bopp, from Four Worlds for Development Learning.
Sepah Mazloum, a Baha’i Faith member, said the event reminds people to think of their own prejudices, and about being more united.
Speaking of the acts of violence around the world and violent groups, Mazloum stressed that the majority of people want peace.
“The people that want to cause dis-unity, they are a minority, but usually they are louder,” said Mazloum. “This event makes sure that people understand that people want a peaceful world, united together.”
The Baha’i Faith Group is described as the “world’s newest independent global belief system” that focuses on the unity of humanity and the harmony of religion. Started originally in the Middle East, the faith is worldwide in reach today.
“It was actually them that came to us [with the idea to celebrate the event],” said Nadeau. “I think because they are very much about equality and just connecting everybody as a global society, they came up with the idea and came to us asking for our help to put it on.”
Natacha Gougeon, community engagement volunteer co-ordinator out of the High River FCIS, said the event aims to bring people together.
“Get people to recognize that High River, Okotoks, they’re diverse communities and we need to embrace that and open the lines of communication,” said Gougeon. “This is a great way, we’re sharing food and breaking bread and we’re getting to know each other. We’re saying our community is your community.”
