Somalis in Edmonton launch cultural association and museum
The Somali Art and Cultural Association of Canada, who is an organization that was formed in 2018 to showcase our culture and to educate Canadians about our culture. We’re hoping that this museum will be a cultural hub for Somalis and Canadians, for it to attract tourism in Edmonton, for us to have keynote speakers, for us to create dialogue and have important conversations, to break barriers. To no longer have preconceived notions about one another. Since 2018 we had been gathering ideas, artifacts. Everything, you know, collecting the songs, the history of Somali, it’s extremely hard to get artifacts because it’s hard to make it and people make it from the sheepskin, cow skin, camel skin and it takes to preserve and after that to make it. It takes time. Somali culture is very diverse. It is our cultural dance, it is our attire, it is our food, our cultural artifacts portray our unique and rich culture the best. We have a lot of handmade objects that have really Somali nomadics who are living in the rural areas were essentially forced to have to get creative and think outside the box and create to meet their basic needs. I’m taken aback by how much cultural artifacts we have, how diverse our culture is. I’m learning a lot as a youth Canadian who was born and raised in Canada. I’m getting a lot of exposure to our culture as well. I think Canadians will love it and I’m excited about our museum watching soon.