I enjoy the experience of learning about new cultures and people when I travel. Sometimes I do not have to venture very far from home to be able to mix with other cultures.

Recently I enjoyed a visit to Toronto, which is famous as a multicultural city that is home to numerous Asian, African, European and Caribbean ethnic groups. During my visit I was happy to learn that a Multicultural festival was taking place that included art presentations and performances by artists, musicians and actors.

It was great to be able to listen to outdoor musical performances and walk around a market atmosphere that featured entrepreneurs selling arts, crafts, clothing and souvenirs. The festival also included a section devoted to displaying and selling the traditional foods and drinks of Southeast Asian cultures.

I toured another area of the festival and attended a short workshop that had racism as its theme. It was a learning experience to be surrounded by a predominantly Southeast Asian crowd during the workshop. I listened to their concerns about racism towards people of their culture. A lot of these people were Muslims and they communicated their stories of racism as a result of the September 11,2001 events in the United States. The deadly events in the United States has had a great effect on the world but this event has also had a great impact on a lot people who are considered to be Muslim or just look like they are Arabian or merely have brown skin. As a matter of fact I heard from people that were treated badly after September 11 just because they had brown skin and looked different.

It seems that people don’t need a lot of reason to lay blame on others and the events of September 11 gave racists an excuse to treat people from minority cultures badly. It is sad to see that racism still exists in old beliefs and ways of thinking in today’s world. As connected as we all are to each other through the internet and television there is still a lot of ignorance in this world.

As a First Nation person from the James Bay coast, I grew up in my home community of Attawapiskat with an understanding that my culture was different from the society in the south. However, I was protected by the fact that we were mostly all Cree in my community. It was a great change for me when I had to move to secondary school in Timmins.

Although I was never treated badly or experienced many difficulties, I knew that my friends from my community and I were different from everyone else. We felt this in how others treated us. We felt inferior in this new world.

and over time I learned to feel more comfortable with others. Unfortunately, just when I am ready to believe that racism is all but gone, I run into a situation where I am not well received by others. This usually happens in a store, restaurant or bank. The strange thing is that I am generally spending money in these places as a customer.

Just recently I was happily walking down the street of a small town in South Eastern Ontario. As I passed by a group of young men one hollered out that “The Indians were in town and the whole tribe must be here somewhere”. I was shocked and a little afraid and made a point to leave the town a little earlier than I had planned. It was a terrible reminder for me that in some places things have not changed much.

One of the ideas that were talked about at the workshop I attended during the Multicultural festival, was the need for teaching other cultures to young students in school. This education would teach individuals from a young age about others and allow them to break free from ignorant and racist beliefs and to develop a more healthy way of looking at the world. I think it is a great idea to teach young people that there are other cultures, beliefs and skin colours in our world and that this makes our world a wonderful place, full of diversity. Every school should include such programming to make sure that the young ones do not have to grow up with the sickness of racism. It will make life easier for us all.