Students embrace cultural difference with a smile

 

Ever wondered what it would be like to live in a totally different culture, or perhaps just walk in their shoes for a day? A group of Hawke’s Bay teenagers, who have immigrated from all over the globe, got together recently and did just that.

The Hawke’s Bay Intercultural Youth Group traded their jeans and jandels to try on traditional clothes from other cultures and worked with artist Delicia Sampero to create a short film ‘In the Shoes of Another’, which highlights the day-to-day lives of people from different cultures and how differently they are treated based on their identity.

The film features the young people describing the way “outsiders” reacted to their different appearance and their observations on these reactions.

The film begins with Tevivi from Rarotonga discussing his experience of being Mohammed  and the impact that a smile from a stranger amid hostile words can have. Other shots include Leo as Melanie; Jessica from Fiji as Rodda from Africa; Guoda from Lithuania as Leila from Arabia; and Hawraa from Iraq as Stacey from America.

The film reminds us of the diversity of humanity, and the danger of judging anyone based on their physical appearance.

The initiative (which has been acknowledged by the Human Rights Commission) was supported by Napier City Council and Settlement Support Hawkes Bay, and will be launched by Napier Mayor, Barbara Arnott, on December 15. You can view the short film on Youtube

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfZcby-Mfpw