The Peak

World Cultures Day creates club cohesion

By Carime Bohr

On Wednesday, March 3, students were invited to taste sweet Columbian coffee, sip Taiwanese bubble tea, and try on a traditional Korean costume, along with a host of other cultural experiences, as part of World Cultures Day. The event, held in the Saywell Hall Atrium, could not be missed by passing students, as the lively entertainment, engaging information booths, and colourful tents drew and held their attention.

The various groups represented included: Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Columbia, Mexico, First Nations, SFU International, SFU Recreation, and the Punjabi, Canadianized Asian, and Iranian Culture Clubs.

Each of the event volunteers contributed by enthusiastically sharing their culture’s food and drink, traditional instruments and costumes, artifacts, and language. Sally Chen, a volunteer from the Taiwanese Culture Club, explained that the day was a “chance to let others participate in unique cultures.”

Arry Dhillon, one of the event organizers, stated the event was an attempt to establish cohesion between clubs. “Outside of the individual clubs, there isn’t a cohesive participation [between other clubs],” he added. He also hopes future cultural events will “break [that] barrier and get all clubs together to make a more diverse experience.”

Dhillon detailed how the day unfolded, beginning with speeches from SFU President Michael Stevenson and Nello Angerilli, the associate VP students and international, on cultural diversity, which were followed by performances from the First Nations Club, South Asian Club, Indonesian Association, Mexican Club, and Iranian Club. Iranian comedian Reza Peyk finished off the daytime events.

The event drew in over 1,000 students between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., selling 300 participants’ food and drinks from their respective cultures. “The event went amazingly well,” reported Dhillon, “mainly because we sold out of all of the food we had for sale.”

At one point during the event, students packed the halls and stairways to see the major performances, drawing complaints from facilities, urging people to move along so other students could get to class.

The celebration of cultures continued later that night in the Highland Pub, in which 50/50 raffle tickets were sold. All profits from the raffle are to be contributed to the Chilean earthquake relief. According to Dhillon, by the end of the night over $100 had been raised for the cause.

Although the event included a range of representatives from various cultures, Dhillon admitted that there is room for cultural diversification. Due to space restrictions and the varying interest in the event from different clubs, only 12 of the approximately 40 cultural clubs at SFU participated in the event.

Diego Reyeros, one of the organizers of the event, would like to make events like World Cultures Day a part of every semester. “We’re too concerned with our personal goals and our next door neighbour’s goals, but not [our] society’s,” Reyeros asserted. “I think if [clubs] start cooperating in [events like these], we can [begin to] make changes in the university as a community.”