Culturama a colourful display of today’s Steinbach
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It was a colourful display of the new energy pulsing through Steinbach thanks to some of its newest citizens.
Culturama kicked off Monday with its first Nigeria night. It closes Friday with its first Fiji night.
Steinbach Coun. Jake Hiebert described to the crowd the effect immigration has had on the city.
“As I look around at all the colours of the clothing that people are wearing, I’m reminded of my own upbringing, and I tell you, there wasn’t a lot of colour in a Mennonite community so we really welcome it,” smiled Hiebert, evoking laughter from the people of a wide variety of backgrounds in attendance.
One of the families in attendance was the Laichuk family including Lindmyla, Oleksii and their three-year-old son Mark, who moved to Steinbach from Ukraine two years ago.
Oleksii said he appreciated the opportunity to learn about his neighbours.
“We enjoyed it so much,” he said.
His favourite part was the fashion show, which had examples from different regions of Nigeria. The country is incredibly diverse itself, being made up of 36 autonomous states that speak three major languages and 527 languages with 1,150 dialects in total.
“I liked the girls’ dancing,” said Lindmyla, and Mark gave a thumbs up.
“Steinbach is a changing city,” said Hiebert in his speech, listing the thousands of residents from several of the newer cultures to arrive including Sikhs, Hindus, Polynesians, Russians, Ukrainians, and the well-rooted Filipino community.
“It’s welcome to see the Nigerian community here. They’ve been a part of our city,” he added.
Hiebert went on to say Steinbach is now one of the most diverse cities in the Prairies.
“That’s nice to see. We’re no longer a Mennonite community [only], we’re really diverse,” said Hiebert.
Culturama is a joint venture of the Pat Porter Centre and Eastman Immigrant Services.
Mexico was featured Tuesday, the Metis took over Wednesday, and India was Thursday’s show before Fiji closes it out Friday with Island Breeze traditional dances and dishes of traditional caramel, coconut, and cassava cake (Vakalolo); seafood salad; and pork sliders.
