Keynote Address - Olympian Sue Holloway:Reaching Your Podium - Life Lessons I Learned as an Olympian "If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be." Maya
Angelou's words resonated with Sue Holloway throughout her life. The keynote speaker of the CFUW Ontario Council AGM and Conference held in Ottawa May 29th and 30th was not afraid to step away from the crowd and take on challenges that set her apart from others.
The audience was captivated by Sue's stories - from her early days taking judo (she was not designed to be a dancer) to finding her passion on the cross-country ski trails and in a kayak.
Sue never backed down from a challenge including the invitation from NBC to compete in a televised survival show in New Zealand and to being the first (and only) woman competing in an outrigger race in Hawaii.
Sue's passion is sports and she has been able to
follow that passion throughout her life. As a young woman, Sue became a high performance athlete and Olympic medalist, and she continues today by paddling with a gold medal winning dragon boat team and coaching cross-country skiing to 9 year old girls.
Sue's message to us and to all women is to step out of our comfort zone, be persistent along the path to success and remember, failure is never final.
Sue wants women to follow the words of Niccolo Machiavelli, "make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul" by setting aside limitations and turning obstacles into opportunities. She encourages women to have the freedom to explore and create new passions, to be bold and to try new things.
Most important, women should create support systems and join groups to motivate each other. Make challenges fun and rewarding.
As CFUW members, we can empower younger women by mentoring and supporting them - it is our duty to bring young woman along by encouraging them to find their own path and passion.
Sue's message to us is to remember our motto of 'The Power of Women Working Together" - and to know we can rnake a difference.
Activist Sadiqa Basiri SaleemEducation of Afghan Women Sadiqa Basiri Saleem, a graduate student at the University of Ottawa, has great faith in education to empower women. When the Taliban fell, she returned from a Pakistan refugee camp to her Afghan village to set up a school for 32 girls. To date she has educated some 4000 girls in six primary schools as a co-founder of the Oruz Learning Centre. She has established a Family Welfare Centre for the Elimination of Violence against Women, opened the first Afghan Community College which became the first all women university, and in 2009, she received a scholarship from Mount Holyoke College in the US and eamed a BA there.
Sadiqa spoke of the critical gender-based challenges girls face kept from school or
employment and forced into early marriage to clear family debt. Although education and
health have improved for women, there is much to be done. Few women parliamentarians
who meet a quota set in the Constitution speak out and are often proteges of warlords.
In rural areas especially, people vote for the candidate who has the most access to the
pork barrel. While many voters came out in the last election, Sadiqa feels it was a farce with fake ballots and general fraud.
The new Prime Minister Ghani has experience and understanding of the country and his
election was greeted with hope, but little has happened even though people were greatly
encouraged when the new Prime Minister signed the Security Pact with the US.
Investment funds from Afghans and abroad were lost to Karzai's shilly shallying; the signed agreement has brought little new money to the country.
Women were relatively free to work and be educated and to refuse marriage from 1919,
when they got the vote, to 1973 when the Soviets began to rattle sabres and then invaded.
Sadiqa exhorted women never to forget the plight of Afghan women in this now misogynist country and to pressure the Afghan government to grant them the privileges their grandmothers enjoyed.
Author Denise Chong
The Arc of Immigrant Experience - An Author's Perspective
Denise began her working life as an economist but left in 1984 to start her career writing about
the Canadian Chinese immigrant experience of families, their stories, and in so doing,
discovering parts of her family's history too. Denise has been awarded four honourary doctorates, and was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013.
Denise had four key themes for her talk: creation of an immigrant's identity, the effects of the immigrant on the main-stream society, diversity and differences, and mysteries between Canadian and Chinese families.
Denise talked about the men who moved to Canada. They formed "Bachelor's Societies", where they would gather, share stories and gamble, but the clubs were also where they obtained work leads, and they in turn provided "peer-lending" for other Chinese business ventures.
Denise spoke about the effects of Chinese immigration on Canadian society. She spoke of
Chinese food restaurants, laundries, and other business ventures. There were bonds between
Chinese and Jewish society and businesses, as they were both outsiders to the mainstream
Christian white societies.
She told about the head-tax, and the impact it had and challenges it presented to family
reunification. Men shared their date-stamped immigration cards, so they could bring over their
children, particularly those who were boys over 18. Men exchanged the cards so their children
(mostly sons) could immigrate. This gave rise to the term "paper" sons and daughters.
Due to the long time it took to raise the funds, in family photos, families often had older children who had been born in China and very young children who were born in Canada.
Denise also referred to discrimination felt by Chinese society; however it decreased the further east the families moved. For example, intermarriage was more accepted the further east a family moved in Canada. Even among the Chinese society, there was some discrimination amongst Chinese people as the earlier immigrants had been peasants and farmers, while later immigrants were mostly urban immigrants from Hong Kong.
Denise ended her talk by reading from her most recent book: "Lives of my Family",soon to be published.
Flautist Tina Fedeski
The Transformative Power of Music
Tina Fedeski is co-owner of The Leading Note music store in Ottawa, and co-founder
with cellist Margaret Tobolowska of The Leading Note Foundation and its exceptional 'Orkidstra Program'.
The 'Orkidstra Program' is inspired by El Sistema, the Venezuelan youth orchestra system which gives children from low-income families the opportunity to leam and make music. Currently 500,000 children, most from poor socio-economic backgrounds, attend El Sistema
music programs in Venezuela. Tina and Margaret introduced the Orkidstra Program in 2O07, and it has been enthusiastically embraced by the Ottawa community.
Based in the Bronson Centre, there are now over 350 young musicians (from 42 different linguistic backgrounds) involved every week!
The principles are simple. Children aged 5-8 join Kiddlywinks and may graduate to join Kidsingers, the Kidplayers String Program, the Orkidstra Band program or the Kidsingers Chorus. Tuition, outings, music and, instruments and social support when needed are free of charge. Lessons are in groups, and group support is fundamental. Orchestral playing and group singing are part of every program from the beginning. The music they learn encompasses a wide variety - from classical to folk-based and world music. Participation in Orkidstra is tun.
For Tina, the most essential and powerful element of music is its ability to create harmony. Bringing children together as musicians unites them in a way and creates stronger kids, and a stronger community. The kids learn about working together and sharing opportunities and responsibilities. They form strong and enduring friendships. The goal is not to make professionals, but to help kids develop into strong, confident adults who can make good choices and are good citizens.
The program inspires passion for music, and teaches the importance of perseverance and "GRIT".
