Canada has always been known as a multicultural nation, embracing the cultures, languages and customs of the many people from around the world who choose to call this great land home.
Our cultural mosaic sets us apart from countries such as the United States. Here in Canada, with varying levels of success, we endeavour to embrace other cultures and encourage people to bring their heritage with them from their homelands and to use it to help weave the ethnically diverse quilt of people who make up our population.
This weekend, the Capital Region will join together for an opportunity to share the many cultures that make up the diverse mix of people who contribute to Alberta’s success.
Celebrating its 40th year, the Servus Heritage Festival is a global tour – right in our backyard – of the tastes, sights and sounds of the world. With more than 60 pavilions featuring food, dance, art and fashion from 85 different cultures, the festival is the premier event in the province where we can all become immersed in the rich diversity of our planet.
While St. Albert ranks low for the number of visible minorities compared to the rest of the province – four per cent compared to 14 per cent – our city is not without diversity and its history has deep roots in aboriginal and French culture.
In 2006 – the latest data specific to St. Albert – 1,640 people identified as aboriginal and 2,900 stated they had aboriginal ancestry. Visible minorities, which do not include aboriginal peoples, accounted for more than 2,500 people. There were also 47 languages, not including French and English, reported as being spoken most often in the home. Among those, Cantonese, Spanish and Arabic were the most common. In 2011, German, Ukrainian and Tagalog were the top three, respectively.
Aside from the opportunity to sample offerings from around the world, the heritage festival also provides an atmosphere for education and understanding. Our world has never had its shortage of disagreements between nations, wars and human rights issue. While many of these problems are more reflective of governments than they are people, daily bombardment of sensationalized media can create biases and intolerance.
Edmonton’s heritage festival and others like it are a chance to connect with real people and hear their stories. When we take the time to get to know people and understand their culture and attitudes, we stop seeing them as stereotypes and begin to view them as our neighbours and friends.
While many can argue the success of multiculturalism and there is no denying racisms and prejudice still exist across the nation, we can only hope the efforts to recognize the value of other cultures and ways of life will lead to better understanding and will help to foster harmony.
