Multiculturalism Day In Winnipeg

I attended three events this Multiculturalism Day.  NICCOM event at St. Mary's Avenue was fun and exciting. There were several multicultural performances from various communities including the Chile, First Nations, Ukranians, African and the Chinese. There was also food and drinks served free of charge. What a treat.
I also attended the Manitoba Association of Rights and Liberties Multiculturalism Day celebration at the Cube (The Old Market Place).  This event was pretty much rained out but stuck it out and was blessed with perfect weather later in the afternoon. I enjoyed some folk-festival type of music by some awesome local musicians, had some poutine from across the street and enjoy the beautiful evening until around 7:30 p.m.
On Sunday the Jamaican Cultural Centre had their celebration Jamaican style.  People showed up. There was food for sale, cultural entertainment including renditions of Ms Lou Bennett, who made creole respectable in the Caribbean, the maypole and just good time gaffing with people you did not see for some time.
Multiculturalism Day was fantastic.  Here are some pictures of the day

Summer Edition - GEM - Global Eyes Magazine

http://www.slideshare.net/Cascard/gem-summer-edition-2015

Live to Tell - A Metis Girl's Story

She is lucky to be alive. Great story

http://www.chatelaine.com/living/i-was-19-the-night-i-was-kidnapped-and-raped/

Neat three minutes video of he Magna Carta

https://vimeo.com/121986958

Manitobans for Human Rights

Have you heard of this group?  This is a new group formed to push the human rights agenda in Manitoba.  We're not doing too well being named as the most racist province and the province with the highest child poverty rate ah ah, tsh tsh.

Val Thompson is the woman at the helm of this organization and she is working really hard to get the message out.


On Thursday June 4, the inaugural steering Committee was officially installed. It is composed of a group of eclectic people and they are looking for more interested people, so if you are interested get involved and let us work to make Winnipeg the Human Rights Capital in Canada  We can do it. Remember we were the first province where women (Caucasian) got the right to vote, Manitoba has the most protections against human rights but we must work harder to operationalize these rights.

The meeting was held at the Aboriginal Thunder bird House and there was a very uplifting, encouraging discussion and the first thing that the group felt that should be looked at is poverty. there are people falling through the t.  For example we were told that there are no shelters for people who are addicted, those people are routinely being turned away by shelters such as Siloam Mission , Salvation Army etc. and many die on the streets during the winter that we never hear about.

There were about 20 people in attendance. We need you to get involved.

A chance to be a child again

Women healing for Change an organization that has been around in Winnipeg for some time now organized a day of fun for women to explore their lives in a fun and exciting way.  Tracy Fehr Winnipeg Artist who just graduated with hr Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree after being a practicing artist for more than 20 years, led us through the morning session which began with a little meditation and a little dancing - loosening up things a bit. The she let us loose with fabric, paper, paints, threads and shiny stuff to the world of imagination and consciousness.
    It was really fun. There is a child in each of us dying to get out to play sometimes. Yeah, we don't have to be so serious and in our adult clothes all the time, it's okay for your little self to come up and play. Play we did.  At the end or the morning session we shared our process and it was quite a learning and interesting thing.  Women do carry a lot but once you we are open to sharing, the load gets lighter and you find out you are not alone.

Potluck followed and we were very creative in our eating too.  All the colours from the garden of Eden were there.  It was a feast among the group of about 15 women

Janet Carroll led us through a marbling workshop This was magical. It is an old craft which I believe started in the Middle east and was connected to calligraphy but Western artists have modified it a bit bit.  This was fun exciting and surprising.

Thanks to Gerry and Doreen who do a lot of the work in organizing these events for women. We appreciate you and your efforts. Thank you.  I'll post some pictures of what I did later, so watch fir that.