Friday evening held the Fraser Valley Cultural Diversity Awards at the Ramada Hotel in Abbotsford.
It was my first time attending the event, and I really enjoyed it. The last few years I’ve worked with the Abbotsford Multicultural Festival, and it was a pleasure to participate in the awards as the festival was nominated.
Diversity amongst people is an important part of my community. The mayor of Abbotsford, local MLAs, and other community leaders all addressed this at the Awards. What is most interesting in my opinion is the link between the appreciation of human diversity and biodiversity. I’m not sure which comes first, however, I know that we can’t truly have one without the other.
If a community appreciates all of its people and they are all of equal value, then the land that sustains them is therefore of equal value and must be proportionally appreciated. This is a lot like the concept of the environmental movement in Copenhagen where it wasn’t about polar bears, but people. The Fraser Valley Cultural Diveristy awards address human diversity, and there could perhaps be room for a champion of diversity in another way, a champion of diversity who champions all diversity including that of the Fraser Valley land itself.
Just a thought.
The keynote speaker was the President of the American Women’s ski jumping Association and the past mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah. All women’s ski jumping teams are barred from participating in the Olympics…the Canadian supreme court has even viewed it as discrimination, while the current government has not. I think when we can put an end to the lack of regard for human diversity, we can put an and to the lack of regard for bio diversity. Check out more on women’s ski jumping here!
Filed under: COP15
