On Nov. 3, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the “Let’s Eat Together! Dumplings of the World” event was hosted by the Building Community Across Cultures (BCAC) at the U-House in room F124. Employees were served dumplings from various local businesses for free. Faculty and staff at the event included teaching and learning specialist, internationalization, Victoria Surtees; school of culture, media, and society (SCMS) associate professor and South Asian studies institute director Satwinder Bains; SCMS director Chantelle Marlor; and director, international Daryl Smith. They discussed the importance of building community, internationalization, establishing cultural relationships, and how that related to the dumpling event.
“This free event gave employees a chance to taste dumplings from around the world and to have conversations with others around their own food experiences and traditions. It was a chance to build community and relationships around something we all have in common: food,” Surtees explained.
The food served at the event was a variety of dumplings: gyoza, samosas, Jamaican patties, baos, empanadas, and perogies and sour cream, which came from a variety of local restaurants, community kitchens, food trucks and people’s homes. Vendors included Mr. Siopao de Langley bakery, Gian’s, The Patty Shop, Ebisu Sushi, Margui’s Peruvian Cocina, and Old Country Pierogi.
According to Surtees, the dumpling event is one of four they are putting on for UFV employees with the intent to bring people together and “build relationships, connections, and get dialogue going” through different global foods.
Bains explained that the lack of community felt by staff and employees at UFV helped to trigger this journey to gain a better understanding of different cultures. This hunger led to the creation of four events that will take place in the Fall semester.
The first event was “Building Community Across Cultures” with guest speaker Kyra Garson on Oct. 12. This event explored how faculty members can support intercultural learning. “Let’s Eat Together! Dumplings of the World” was the second event.
The third event, “Relationship Building Across Cultures” took place on November 8, 2022 and focused on the different expectations people have for each other based on their culture and cultural assumptions, and how this knowledge can help faculty and staff be more understanding and mindful of their expectations of students and each other.
The final event is “Brazil v. Cameroon FIFA World Cup Game” and will take place on Dec. 2 at 11:00 a.m., where employees can both watch the game and then discuss the cultural significance and roles soccer plays worldwide.
The dumpling event brought together staff and employees to promote interest in joining the journey to the UFV Chandigarh campus in India that is planned for 2024 to better understand the culture and gain insight into international students’ perspectives.
“The idea is we’re building up to a study tour for faculty and staff to go to Northern India, and the impetus behind that is so [they] can help themselves become internationalized by becoming more familiar with where a lot of our international students are coming from,” said Marlor.
According to Bains, the goal is to take a group to the Chandigarh campus where they will spend close to 15 days visiting six different cities, immersing themselves in the culture, and getting to know the students who attend UFV India . They hope to gain a better cultural understanding that they can bring back with them to help cater to the needs of both international and domestic students.
Smith said that one of the challenges is to make sure the study tour is “decolonized.” Bains added that the employees partaking in the trip will encounter remnants of colonialism in India where some of the people tend to still think with a “colonial mindset” and “give white people more room” or treat them as if they have more knowledge.
Smith and Bains also mentioned that there will be a lot of preparatory work that needs to be done before the tour can take place to help make as smooth a transition as possible, to help reduce the culture shock, and “to make their experience richer.” India is very different from Canada, they explained, and Bains described it as a “heavy country that can hit a person like a ton of bricks.”
“I think that the end goal would be how do I engage with a culture with people who are different from me in a meaningful way to move and to advance things forward?” said Smith.
A series of planned workshops will take place during the next year and a half to help staff to engage in this initiative, and students are encouraged to come and have conversations with the faculty. Marlor said that staff can get a first hand perspective of where students are coming from, and Bains added that the students in turn can hear the viewpoints of the faculty.
“Our focus is on faculty and staff because we want to make a more welcoming, inclusive space for everyone … So, while our focus is largely on working with faculty and staff, our larger purpose is very student-driven,” said Marlor.
“I’ve been here about a year and UFV is a wonderful place because it brings all these different cultures together, and I think with the domestic, international, Indigenous, recent immigrants, people who have recently come to the country, we have this potential to utilize this and to build on this strength of the diversity that comes to the campus, but we need to be intentional with it; it’s not just going to happen,” said Smith.
On a deeper level, the free world dumpling event is the “tip of the iceberg” in the journey to bring the community together through internationalization and gaining a better understanding of different cultures. At the heart is the goal, the shared desire, for this venture to support students.
Rachel is working towards a BA with a concentration in English and Theatre. She has been employed at The Cascade since Fall 2021 as a Staff Writer and a Jr. News Editor. Currently, she is the sectional News Editor and enjoys meeting and interviewing people as well as taking long walks in nature. Rachel also likes to stay up to date on the latest trends and informs students through her fashion column entitled Campus Fashion.
