We organised a very successful Consumer Forum on
Friday, 2 March 2007. More than twenty MDAA consumers,
members and Management Committee representatives, as well
as some MDAA workers, attended the forum. The topic was
"What do you know about my culture?"
We covered two areas:
1. Celebrating our important holidays
The speakers were MDAA consumers and volunteers.
Nidhi talked about the Indian culture and Diwali, an
important festival which is celebrated over 4 days in
October. The dates of Diwali sometimes vary as they
follow the lunar calendar. The significance of Diwali is
the victory of good over evil. It is the most popular
festival in India and is also called the festival of
lights. The celebration is commonly done by lighting
lamps, visiting relatives, fireworks displays and
feasting.
Holi is a popular, playful Hindu spring festival,
observed in India. Also called the festival of colours,
from a legend where an aunt, Holika, died arguing against
her brother, the king. On the first day, bonfires are lit
or an effigy or statue of the goddess of love is also
burnt in some parts of India at night to signify the
burning of Holika as she is supposed to have disturbed
meditation of the God Shiva.
On the second day, known as Dhulandi, people spend the
day throwing coloured powder and water at each other.
During spring when the weather changes, it is believed to
cause viral fevers and colds so the playful throwing of
the coloured powders has a medicinal value: the colours
are traditionally made of Neem, Kumkum, Haldi, Bilva, and
other medicinal herbs prescribed by herbal/naturalist
doctors. A special drink called thandai is prepared,
sometimes containing bhang (Cannabis sativa). People
invite each other to their houses for feasts and
celebrations later in the evening.
Hannen, who has a Lebanese Muslim background,
higlighted some important information about her
culture:
- Sunni Muslims are one of the largest religious
groups in Lebanon
- The special day of Eid (feast day) happens at the
end of Ramadan after fasting from sunrise to sunset
for 40 days
- Muslims pray 5 times a day
- The Mosque plays a major role in our lives as it
is a place of worship. In my community, when people go
to the mosques they meet people haven't seen for a
long time.
- Women wear long clothes and the head scarves
because of great respect to Allah and each other.
Tony Shoushani spoke about being a Lebanese Christian
and focused on some important issues for the Lebanese
Maronite community:
- Like the Roman Catholics, the Maronites have a
strong devotion and celebrate all the festive
seasons
- The two most important events are Easter and
Christmas as well as the Baptism of a child
- The family is very important in Lebanese Christian
lives as they take care of family members with
disability
- Extended family play a major role
Tony said "we like lamb, olives and cheese are very
popular in our culture".
2. Cross-cultural communication
We invited a guest speaker, Maria Katrivesis, MDAA's
Regional Industry Development Worker, who gave us tips on
how to communicate better with people from other
cultures.
Some very useful tips that Maria mentioned are as
follows:
- Comunicate in plain and simple English - no big
words
- Consider differences in communication in different
cultures
- Listen actively and don't interrupt during the
conversation
- Check to make sure that people involved in the
communication understand each other
- Use an interpreting service if needed
After the forum, we had a very enjoyable multicultural
lunch.
