Reflecting on the success of the “Sharing Food, Sharing Languages” event

“Sharing Food, Sharing Languages” – an event organised by the Highland Council’s Adult Learning team in partnership with migrant and refugee learning communities – successfully took place at Eden Court, Inverness on 22 June on the concluding day of Refugee Week Scotland (13-22 June).

Refugee Week Scotland is the largest arts and culture festival, celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary.

The event brought together over 200 people from New Scots and host Communities to celebrate “milestones”, the theme for this year’s event.  The key purpose was to promote diversity and cross-cultural understanding and connect people through shared interests and passions. It also provided a platform to ensure marginalised communities could express themselves through art.

Learners were able to showcase their diverse skills, expertise, history and culture. Voices were heard and represented through stories, song and poetry.  

Participants were invited to take part in creative workshops including Ukrainian embroidery and the art of writing different scripts. There were unique language tasters led by native speakers of Pashto, Dari, Arabic, Ukrainian and Turkish and a multicultural Storytime for families.

Wonderful performances from Cheryl Heggie’s Highland dancers and Mriya Ukrainian Childrens’ Choir, from Aberdeen, created a rich immersive cultural experience.

To top it all off, there were delicious traditional dishes to try from Ukraine, Eritrea, South Sudan and Afghanistan.

Lucy McGlennon, Head of Engagement at Eden Court said:  “Sharing Food, Sharing Languages” was a fantastic event and we are delighted to have been in a position to support it.  Eden Court is for everyone, and it is important to us that people of all cultures feel that they are welcome here.  It was a moment of great pride to see so many cultures represented through delicious foods, national dress and through song, dance and poetry.”

Highland Council Learning for Life, part of the Community Learning and Development, supports adult learning activities which help with everyday skills such as reading, writing, using numbers, English as second language and digital literacy. All activities are learner-centred and learner-led.

To find out more contact Kirsty.Dambrosio@highland.gov.uk