Today students and young leaders from Canada, the United States, Kenya, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Pakistan, gathered to celebrate Global Dignity Day with a good old fashioned virtual Acadian kitchen party. Approximately 30,000 students participated in the event via the YouTube live-stream.
“Our international Canadian kitchen party celebrated three things: music, food and dignity,” said Terry Godwaldt, Global Dignity National Event Chair, Executive Director for The Center for Global Education and lead singer of the east coast Fiddle Street Band . “These are three life forces that flow through every human. Sustaining us, nourishing us and binding all of humanity as a family.”
The event linked six elementary and high school sites with influencers and creative change makers via Zoom from the comfort of their kitchens. Participants were invited to play homemade instruments and learn the traditional Canadian Voyageur folk song En roulant from world class musicians.
“I am so delighted to take part in my very first Canadian kitchen party!” said singer songwriter, Morris Hayes, former musical director for the late artist, Prince, and founder of Global Groove for Peace. “This event brings dignity and peace to the world through a globally-infused, modern symphony, masterfully orchestrated by youth across continents.”
The event featured an opening Indigenous prayer of thanksgiving and a performance of The Voice of Freedom by University of Alberta Ph.D. student, Anna Wilson. Global Dignity’s National Role Model and Indigenous Cultural Ambassador, Amy Lacroix, shared her dignity story about cultural inclusion, sacred traditions and the great value of understanding one’s roots.
“I come from a lineage of Sixties Scoop, residential school and foster care survivors,” said Ms. Lacroix. “Learning about my heritage led me to understand where I came from, and how the dignity a person feels can be closely connected to identity. Meeting my family gave me pride in myself knowing that I come from an outstanding nation, and that who I am deserves dignity.”
Established in 2005, by HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman and CEO John Hope Bryant and Professor Pekka Himanen, Global Dignity is linked to the 2020 process of the World Economic Forum, in which leaders from politics, business, academia, and civil society join efforts to improve the state of the world.
Global Dignity is an independent, non-profit, non-political organization with the aim to instill a positive, inclusive and interconnected sense of value in young people that will guide them as they grow, as well as promote the idea that every human being has the universal right to lead a dignified life. The organization supports 3 million youth in 80 countries.
“The voices of our living ecosystems led by future generations rising together in a quest for shared dialogue and harmony; this, to me, is the sound of global dignity and today, we start to orchestrated it together, as one family,” said Tara Baswani, internationally acclaimed performing artist, composer, Co-Founder of entertainment for impact agency, LembasWorks and entertainment innovator for Cirque du Soleil.