What’s this site about? If you’d like to read in another language, please click one of the flags at the side of the page for a rough translation. Here’s the short answer to the question. Through this online storytelling project, people across the country are sharing personal stories about their everyday experience with multiculturalism. Canada was the first country in the world to adopt an official multiculturalism policy more than 40 years ago. The website creates an online forum to share individual perspectives while developing a collective experience. You are welcome to visit the site without contributing a story. If you would like to submit a story – great! You are helping to shape and support the project. If you would like to submit a story in a language other than English, click on the flag at the right for the language you wish to use. Enjoy the site and thanks for your interest. This academic research is being conducted under the auspices of Royal Roads University.
The Longer version is here. I share a little of my story, and the reason for this project.
Multiculturalism and I grew up together. As Canada was becoming the first country in the world to become officially multicultural, I was becoming a teenager. I recognize that the country was already a weave of cultures with Indigenous peoples from coast to coast to coast, two founding languages in English and French, and many generations of immigrants. But to a first-generation Canadian growing up here, becoming officially multi-culture-all felt like a commitment we could measure ourselves by in the future.
Now multiculturalism and I have both hit mid-life — with the stories to show for it. And I find myself thinking a lot about the everyday stories that are the sum of Canada’s mix of cultures. That’s all of us – whether recently arrived, or with roots that go back several years, many generations, or to a time before there was a country called Canada.
Thinking about it actually led me to graduate studies at Royal Roads University, and what is now the topic of my thesis research. There is already a lot of research on multiculturalism and interculturalism from the macro-perspective. My interest is in the micro-perspective — everyday personal stories. I think they provide a view of the big picture you can’t get any other way – and maybe that’s a perspective that can enhance our collective understanding just a little bit more. If you’re interested too then I hope you’ll join in – with a story contribution to the website or visiting often to see what unfolds. You can check out what people are already writing about here.
We travel in our own cultural corridors while at the same time there are millions of points of intersection every day in this country between people of different cultural backgrounds. Corridors and connections – intersections and parallels. What kind of pattern does that create? How do we relate to one another, and how does ‘culture’ come into play? What’s your story?
In addition to the website, I’ll create a short film that includes some of the stories gathered here so that the website and film together cast collective reflection on how our personal experiences shape the meaning of multiculturalism in each of our lives, and Canada as a whole.
If you have a story you’d like to contribute – thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time. It can be a short as a sentence, as long as 500 words, or maybe your story is best told with a picture and a caption – great! If you’d just like to browse through the site – come on in! Sharing the stories with others is what the project is here for.
Your story can be about any small moment in your day – or a big part of your life. It can be about a major connection, or a fleeting one. It can come from being in the corridor, or in the intersection. It’s your story.
What isn’t applicable for this project are opinions about multiculturalism generally – it’s your experience specifically that matters, and your reflections or questions about it. Thanks again for your interest, and once you’ve had a visit, check back soon to see what’s developing! I look forward to seeing and sharing your stories.
