Food and culture help form bonds

Ladies from across the globe converged on the Hedland Well Women’s Centre to bond over food and culture during Harmony Week.

Organised by the Pilbara Community Legal Service’s migrant support team, the monthly Cooking Up a Storm workshop is designed to give migrants and refugees the chance to make new friends.

The month’s session was led by Brazilian migrant Abilene Fischer, who shared stories about her Amazon roots whilst demonstrating how to prepare a traditional chicken salad unique to her culture.

Ms Fischer said the Cooking Up a Storm session was a fantastic opportunity for newcomers to share their cultural traditions and socialise with the wider community.

“It’s very exciting because Brazilians are very tolerant, truly multicultural people,” she said.

“Multiculturalism is engrained in our food and culture but we don’t miss our roots which are the tropic people from the [Amazon] forest…it’s the base of our food, culture, entertainment.

“We have to preserve this, as it binds Brazilians together it can also bring the world together protecting the environment.”

PCLS community migrant worker Victoria Malyk said the aim of the March cooking workshop was to raise awareness for Harmony Day.

“Harmony week is about celebrating our diversity,” she said.

“We have the highest percentage of the population born overseas in WA for any state or territory…we had 72 nationalities in the last census.

“We’re a multicultural state, a multicultural town and we wanted to celebrate all the good things that diversity brings to us.”