00:00:00 Cindy Holmes

Hi, everyone, it’s Cindy Holmes.

00:00:03 Fionna Chong

Leslie Williams and Fionna Chong, and we’re so excited to tell you about our new research project and podcast, Around the Table.

00:00:11 Leslie Williams

In these episodes, we have inspiring conversations with community leaders from across Turtle Island about shared meals, dialogue, spirituality, and social justice.

00:00:21 Elder Earl

It’s an important place for us here when the tide’s out like it is now. That was our saying this when the tide is out, the table is set. That just meant that no matter how poor you were, you have no money. You still come down to the beach and collect clams or crabs and go home and eat like a king.

00:00:39 Nina Fernando

We get Shoulder to Shoulder, we’re mission focused in the work of addressing anti Muslim discrimination and do we believe that sharing a meal is going to eradicate the problem? Not necessarily, no. But it’s one step in building that strong infrastructure that’s needed in order to be effective and to make change. Sharing a meal with someone in your community is building a stronger, bigger community. Oftentimes, with this issue, there are really strong us versus them narratives that are being painted. Who are we and who are they? And just kind of putting them in another space and category. We think that this dinner dialogues, this particular effort with the Ramadan campaign is creating a new sense of we in that context, a broader sense of us and we think that’s profound and it’s one step along a series of steps in order to making change because we need a place to start.

00:01:34 Jennifer Bailey

I think it’s just such a universal human experience. No matter who you are or where you’re from, everyone has had the experience of breaking bread or sharing a meal with someone else, whether that be someone within their family and friends, chosen family, members of a broader community. And so I think the starting place feels a little bit more accessible than a formal debate on policy issue X. And even then, and getting people to come to the table, we often say, is by invitation and not demand.

00:02:04 Cindy Holmes

Join us in 2024 with a brand new episode every two weeks. Subscribe at Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts, and follow us at our website aroundthetabledialogues.ca.