When I was in primary school my two best friends were Chuck Lee from Hong Kong and Puja from India. With my Irish parents maybe we three shared a bond of second generation kids that we didn’t understand at the time. We were just three friends navigating the ups and downs of school life at the age of 10.
The memories of visiting the Hindu Temple with Puja and eating rice and bananas with Chuck Lee are still very strong. I believe it shaped my view of the world and had a huge influence on my behaviour even if it wasn’t conscious.
Throughout my life my circle of friends has had a diversity that, to me was normal. It wasn’t until I had a party at my house and a friend of my sister remarked on it that I realised it wasn’t the norm for everyone.
At a young age I had these people in my life that were different and interesting. They ate food that my parents had never even heard of and their family rituals seemed so much more colourful than ours. These differences were exciting and yet the girls were just the same as me.
I didn’t need to learn about diversity, I just experienced it. As we get older when we see these difference for the first time subconsciously are they treated with more suspicion or fear and does that must influence people’s opinions and actions?
When were were meeting some Somali friends in Canada with the kids a few years ago I wondered how the kids would react. As a muslim woman my friend wears a hijab to cover her head but my daughter didn’t even ask about it. That acceptance is unique to young children. They are curious about the world but nothing is wrong or right it just…is.
We live in a beautiful setting with a level of security that allows my children to have a freedom that they wouldn’t have in most parts of the world. That bit is not lost on me. What bothers me is I want my children to see life in full colour. And what I mean by that is the red and gold saris, the smells of Chinese supermarket and the colour of celebrating Chinese New Year. I don’t want to have to teach my kids about diversity, I want them to live it because in doing that we realise different is not bad, it’s not be feared, it’s just different.