that was wrapped banana leaf that
wonderful lunch and the girl that was
sitting next to me keep glancing at it
I’m not sure for what reason she may be
thinking oh that’s gross
or she might be thinking it looks pretty
interesting but she never had the
courage to question me and if she did
and if we did get into a conversation
she might have found out that I was
actually born on a tropical refugee camp
along the border of Thailand in 1987
when you hear a child such as me
spending the first decade of my life in
the refugee camp what kind of thoughts
come to your mind and what kind of
feelings do you have towards me it may
surprise you though that there’s code
seems very true to me it says to be
called a refugee is the opposite of an
assault it is a badge of strength
courage and victory and for me it was a
badge of strength courage and victory my
family did not have much growing up in
the refugee camp but I was very very
happy like truly happy like those kids
in the slides I call my childhood golden
because we grew we grew up playing out
in the Golden Sun every single day and
we make use of all them little materials
we have elastic mud leaves everything
and honestly that was the most fun I had
throughout my life
maybe that was because I was a kid it
was just about temporary home though
with soon ended in 2007 our family was
resettle into Canada with many other
refugees families and we did speak in
English
I didn’t know how existed all I know was
yes or no I don’t know in toilet that
was about it it was hard and I remember
trying to understand the culture as a
young newcomer there were a lot of
things that were new to me for example
back home where I came from the student
remain quiet throughout the whole lesson
but here there’s more interaction
between the students and the teacher and
I was also so afraid to raise my hand up
all the time and half of that was
because of the language barriers that I
will bear as myself
but then what if the teacher didn’t
smile at me was it because I did
something wrong like there’s always
constant battles going through my head
and it took me six to seven years six to
seven solid years to be able to raise my
hand up in class to ask my teachers for
help and to be able to start doing my
homework by myself and through all those
six and seven years I did the best I
could to gather at the courage to
educate people I came across about my
culture the current people by using my
owners experiences and my own story and
what I found is that as soon as people
find out that I am a refugee they
automatically sum up a story in their
head about Who I am and what my story
should sound like and most of the time I
would get words like I’m sorry or I’m so
glad you’re here in Canada so after many
years of those reaction and many years
of those comments and words I was
convinced that my life was hard and I
have led a life that was only possible
in the movie for most of the people here
in Canada so I began to focus on the
negative side of my life and most of the
time I would talk about how hard it is
say how poor we were and how I pitied
the rest of the population still stuck
there and it would be a very rare case
when I was fortunate enough to rent to
somebody who would be curious enough and
who would be brave enough to ask me what
have you learned as a refugee how did
that impact you positively after all I
am Who I am because of my experiences
and the challenges I have faced and I am
here today to say to say that I was a
refugee and that only made me stronger
the refugee experience taught me to be
patient it taught me to appreciate the
things I have and to truly earn the
things you were like you have to work
hard to earn for the things you want I
know that multiculturalism in Canada is
a very important values but I know that
immigrants are a few youth feel very
lonely isolated and a lot of time
misunderstood and forget about refugees
and immigrants for a second because I
know that Canadians themselves feels
very lonely and isolated a lot of times
but we like to sugarcoat that and we
like to pretend everything is perfect
I would like to say we embrace diversity
when we don’t even know what diversity
really is let me give you an example
this would likely happen if I get into a
conversation with a stranger let’s say I
introduce myself as a Japanese
throughout the conversation they will
likely talk about oh yeah I love sushi I
do I know and let’s say I introduce
myself as an Indian they will likely
talk about but a chicken maybe or
Bollywood music and films and I’ve done
this just to get by so if you I’m going
with this so do as Canadian really know
what the value of diversity is after all
you know what’s funny is that the butter
chicken we like and the sushi women we
may love it’s nothing compared to what
you’ll get to taste an Indian or in
Japan because sadly it is the edited
version for Canadians so that proves to
me we don’t know what diversity is and
my experience taught me that it is more
than food and clothes when it comes to
multiculturalism it is beyond the
appearances we have to get to know each
other on a deeper level we have to
really live together in a community we
have to work together we have to fill in
those missing pieces those personal
connection we have to bound we have to
dig deeper into it together
I really have to appreciate our
differences and we really need to
embrace that and not just sugarcoat it
and say yes we embrace diversity so it
works both ways
now I have some Muslim friends who don’t
wear her job and I would ask them why
like why don’t you wear one and they
would tell me it is by choice not
everybody have to wear one
so what differences doesn’t make after I
asked that question well my mind was
clear the next time I ran into a Muslim
woman without her job I could focus on
the better things about them I could
look for the similarities we have and we
could connect better we can talk about
things that are important instead of
wondering about that her job so from
that I began to ask people questions
whoever I ran into I asked about their
family the occupation they
age the inches and so on and I know some
people just find it weird which makes me
understand why people would ask those
questions but I can tell you that I’ve
gained more friends than I’ve lost from
all those questions and some of those
friendship are deep they last a lifetime
and I’ve even made friends with some
people that think that’s weird why you
asking me all those questions but then
they ended up being my best friend
because of those questions and why would
we ask those questions are we afraid of
the reaction the embarrassment or
they’re known and I know that it
probably would have come naturally so we
have to work on it at a younger age we
have to teach the children that it is
okay to access personal questions that
it is okay to get to know each other on
a deeper level and by getting to getting
to know each other on a deeper level we
can work together automatically better
and we have to teach them to overcome
peer pressure because I know that peer
pressure plays a lot in this and we have
to teach them to really accept
differences and to embrace it because we
so when I think back to my 13 year old
self sitting at that desk eating the
food the lunch that people may think
it’s weird my hope is that not another
child will have to go through that not
another child have to sit there eating
their lunch thinking why is she look at
me like that
instead they would have a conversation
that would lead to finding our
similarities about them that would
educate each other about their
backgrounds where they come from what
they can teach each other
so I would like to ask all of you to
gather up the courage to be curious and
to start asking questions and just don’t
have a story summed up in your head
thank you you