Racism and discrimination are inflicting grave pain and suffering to non-white families and communities in Waterloo Region (WR). In order to confront this suffering, Peace For All Canada is offering community round table (CRT); a healing space for community engagement. Multi-cultural families and communities will be coming together to reflect on ways of confronting cultural and structural racism and discrimination.
Participants will engage in practical activities as a means of cultivating a conscious culture of anti-racism and discrimination. They will also learn how to listen attentively, act collectively and compassionately and heal creatively. We will employ methods such as truth-telling, in which participants will share their ideas, memories and hopes and then weave them together to revive and cultivate inner wisdom, creative soul, compassion, reconciliation, justice and healing. These practical exercises will foster conditions to create just, equitable and fair communities.
We will encourage participants to search for traces of racism and discrimination that may be hidden beneath their individual and collective stories, memories, languages, cultures, systems and institutions. They will learn how to confront painful stories, memories and worries of racism and discrimination. We will guide them on how to learn effective methods of managing and building inter-race relationships. The newly-formed relationships are expected to be rooted in reciprocity, integrity, humanity and the pursuit of peaceful communities.
We believe that learning and unlearning the pedagogy of racism and discrimination is at the core of the process of transforming individuals, families, communities, structures and institutions. We believe that our greatest strength flows from our gift of empathy and caring for one another. We believe that our stories, traditions and cultures hold creative healing energies for our minds, spirits, bodies, systems and institutions. Therefore, it is our responsibility to learn how to revive and sustain the creative healing energies of fostering communities' wellbeing.
We are aware that much of our thoughts and reactions are shaped by inherited systems of division that are known for disempowering people and empowering institutions. We are also aware that both communities and institutions are in need of remedies based on consciousness, empathy, equity and fairness.
Therefore, PFAC and our Civic Hub partners are inviting you to join us at a CRT dialogue. For further information please contact us at info@peaceforallcanada.org.
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