On Canada Day, we celebrate our great country; a nation that allows us to be Canadian while rejoicing in our personal heritage and diversity.
While countries around the world struggle with the notion of immigration, Torontonians can take pride in a recent BBC study that declared Toronto as the most diverse city in the world.
It couldn’t be a more fitting time for the new Toronto Ward Museum to begin operations. The museum seeks to create a space for the life stories of everyday people to be heard. It also challenges Torontonians to connect stories of the city’s past, not only to their own history, but to current issues affecting newcomer communities today.
While the task may seem daunting, the Toronto Ward Museum has already begun to tell the city’s local stories in an unconventional way – through food.
This past week, the museum initiated the “Dishing Up Toronto” program with three walking tours in Toronto and its suburbs. Immigrants
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“Enjoyment and appreciation of food is universal and has provided so many bridges between disparate cultures. Chinese food was adapted for Western palates and became the main attraction for people to venture into Chinatown and have the chance to meet and learn about Chinese people.
City Councillor Mary Fragedakis, attended one of the “Dishing Up Toronto” tours. “It is just wonderful how the Ward Museum wraps together fabulous food, history, culture and learning into a truly enchanting experience,” she explains.
Gracia Dyer Jalea, co-founder of the Toronto Ward Museum, obviously agrees. "History often gets told by an elite few. The life stories of everyday people are seldom recognized,” she says. "Food has the ability to open people's minds and hearts," she adds. "It is an intimate experience that can create space for dialogue. It can bring us together!"
Ahead of Canada, we can all say “bon apetit” to
To begin, most countries lack diversity within their population. On the other hand, Canada can be depict as a melting pot. Canada’s population is very diverse and the people in their society successfully coexist with one another. The population is viewed as one whole group. A similar country Canada can be compared to would be the United States. Both countries are known for their diversity. Whether diversity is displayed in their population or even in their media, diversity is significant in both countries. According to Environic Analytics, the visible minorities expected to increase by 2023 are, South Asian,
It is a known fact that every human being communicates through language, but perhaps a little known fact that we communicate even through the food we eat. We communicate through food all the meanings that we assign and attribute to our culture, and consequently to our identity as well. Food is not only nourishment for our bodies, but a symbol of where we come from. In order to understand the basic function of food as a necessity not only for our survival, we must look to politics, power, identity, and culture.
Museums serve as a way to connect with the public on a large scale, and the knowledge held within exhibits can be a fruitful experience for those who choose to visit these institutions. Experiencing all that a museum has to offer, no matter how well intentioned, can at times be confusing and overwhelming to the individuals visiting the site. The Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian dedicates itself to Native Americans in North and South America, and worked tirelessly with varying tribes to create a new standard. Some visitors and scholars found their work to be successful in design and approach while others found it to be lacking in execution. This institution does not approach Native American history in a familiar fashion; however it does cover an expansive period of time, and produces a great amount of detail while generating powerful emotions.
Thinking about the importance and significance of food respective to our health, ethnic culture and society can cause cavernous, profound, and even questionable thoughts such as: “Is food taken for granted?”, “Is specialty foods just a fad or a change in lifestyle?”, and even “Is food becoming the enemy.” Mark Bittman, an established food journalist, wrote an article called “Why take food seriously?” In this article, Bittman enlightens the reader with a brief history lesson of America’s appreciation of food over the past decades. This history lesson leads to where the social standing of food is today and how it is affecting not only the people of America, but also the rest of the world.
Neither life nor culture can be sustained without food. On a very basic level, food is fundamentally essential for life, not simply to exist, but also to thrive. A means by which carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, nutrients, and calories are introduced into the body, food is a mechanism of survival. However, on a more abstract level, food is also fundamentally essential for culture by establishing its perimeters and dimensions and in shaping its authenticity and character. Food becomes the
In the short story “Totem” by Thomas King, the relationship between the totem pole and the museum workers is predominantly negative. The relationship between the totem pole and the museum workers is depicted as being overpowering, authoritative, and entitled when the workers unceasingly try to remove the totem pole from the museum. Ultimately, the totem pole symbolizes the struggles, resilience, and perseverance of the Indigenous people in Canada.
When studying food in its entirety: its classification, structure, and the way it’s utilized, it becomes obvious that food is closely tied to food-getting strategies; social, democratic, and political constitution; intimate ties of social relationships; ecological vigor and vitality; and the physical and mental wellness of an individual and group. Besides water, food is the most fundamental element of life that we need for our species to survive and thrive; everybody has an appetite for food. Food is a cultural artifact that is central to human life, identity, and bonds we share with our communities. As an artifact, food plays a significant and meaningful role in our everyday connections with “nature through culture,” that translates
D-Day was a defining moment for Canada because they proved their power and abilities as a middle power, captured the heaviest defended beach, and covered the most land on the first day. Canada contributed a lot to the war effort during World War Two. I believe that D-Day was more significant to making Canada’s identity than their involvement at Vimy Ridge. Their victory at Juno Beach is known as a turning point which ended World War Two. It was one of the first times Canada fought independently and everyone in Canada including the French Canadian, African Canadian, and women were supporting the effort, which even sparked the change for equality.
The museum I chose to report on is the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan. The DIA was founded in 1885 is located in Detroit's Cultural Center Historic District. Hours of operation are Tuesday through Thursday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. – 10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Admission is $12.50 for adults, $8 for seniors, $6 for youth (6-17) and $7 for college students (with valid school photo ID). Admission is free for children 5 and under, Detroit residents and for members. Memberships can be obtained online as well as in person. There are different levels of membership that come with valuable benefits.
My earliest memory of food is lentils and rice cooked in a pressure cooker. Lentils were cooked at least three days a week. Other days we had different vegetable curries, curd and more rice. This was what I took to school as my lunch every day. As I grew older and started caring more about my social life and people around me, I started noticing what my classmates brought for lunch from their homes. I started understanding how food reflected different cultures and communities. One day, in our
I arrived at the museum at exactly 9:26. Due to the fact that the house was not scheduled to open until 9 am, I was afforded the opportunity to take a stroll downtown for the first time in almost 8 years. As a kid, my mother and her sisters would take myself, my sister and cousins on “field trips “to downtown Savannah. Like most low income families, we didn’t have a lot of money therefore we found ways to enjoy the city without breaking the bank. This relates to the topic at hand
This report serves to critically evaluate the Toronto Arts Council and determine whether it is worthy of receiving funding from the new Ford City Grants Fund. It will begin by providing a brief overview of the Toronto Arts Council and its
On January 27th, 2015 I went to the Waterloo Regional Museum located in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. The museum scrutinizes the First Nations people, European settlement at the start of the 1800, the manufacturing peak of the 1900`s and the high sector boom of recent years. Many of the historical artifacts and paintings reminded me of some of the themes discussed in the Discovering the Humanities course. The story of human social development as displayed in the Waterloo Regional Museum focuses on the transition to European settlements. This gradual development can be connected to two main modules in the humanities course: the Iroquian creation story and the modern scientific advancement.
Food can teach how cultures developed their cuisine. Sometimes poverty forces people to utilize strange ingredients. Sometimes certain crops are more abundant than others, thus the brunt of their food composes of that crop. Necessity forces people to improvise their cuisine; in the earliest times, people cooked food to survive, not to entertain their taste buds. People can also learn how each culture savors its food. For example, the French eat their food quickly. People can also learn about the community through food, how families, schools, and religious institutions eat. Food is essential as it is “where culture and ecology intersect”, and the act of eating teaches people humanity. Someone can refer to this source’s many points on what food teaches to build an argument on how food is cultural
Canada is one of two countries located in North America and is the second largest country in the world. It is situated just north of the United States and constitutes the northern part of the country, excluding Alaska. Over the years Canada's culture has been influenced by European culture and traditions, mainly that of the French and British. Canadian culture has also been influenced by the countries' first people, the Aboriginals, as well as the newer immigrated population (Wikipedia, 2007). Canada consists of ten provinces and three northern territories, almost all of which are "rich in land and natural resources" (Bailey, par. 2). Canada is often referred to as a mosaic community because there is such a wide variety