Beaconsfield High School celebrates multiculturalism

Students at Beaconsfield High School in Montreal’s West Island are celebrating multicultural day, and they say this initiative is particularly significant.

“Multicultural day is very important to BHS and to all of us,” said BHS principal Rachel Wilson.

“I think we love celebrating the differences in diversity that we have in the school.

“We are in a pretty homogeneous section of Montreal and I think the more that we share about our cultures, our experiences, our customs, the more that people become aware of what’s available and what’s out there for people that may not be the typical West Islander that you would have seen 10 years ago.”

Grade 8 student Maya says: “It makes me feel excited because we get to see so many different cultures and there’s more diversity.”

Maya also shared that she loves “that there’s like lots of different diversity and food and I think that like all the cultures are really cool.”

The West Indian booth was popular with fried baked, macaroni pie and Jamaican patties.

Grade 8 student, Shae, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, commented that “there’s not a lot of cultural people here, so I guess everybody’s interested in our booth because they don’t know a lot about it. So it kind of feels, I guess, special, whereas if you were in a more cultured school, you know, everybody would know more about the culture.”

Shae and her peers shared interesting facts about where the Caribbean culture came from. Shae read from a presentation she had prepared. “So we have some things that have been influenced by East Indians, Hispanics, and mainly by sub-Saharan Africa.”

Grade 11 student Kyle enjoyed “just trying dishes from around the world. Like I went to Croatia to try the sausage, it was actually really good. And I’m Italian, that’s a big thing.”

Grade 11 student Brycen weighed in as a student of colour. “Being more of a visible minority in BHS is great to find some representation, but to my cultures, to others cultures, it’s a great way to feel at home when we’re at BHS.”

Wilson spoke about the evolving demographic of the West Island. “We’re on the West Island, diversity is increasing, the population is changing slowly,” she said.

“We get a lot of off-island students where a lot more of the multicultural facets of our communities are more prevalent.”

“It is a struggle for us to really show the example of what it’s like to be a diverse school when you look around and often enough not everybody is represented.”

“Slowly, that is changing. We don’t choose necessarily who’s going to be teaching at our school or who’s going to be attending at our school, but we want to celebrate the differences and diversity out there so that people will feel welcome.”

Thankfully for Brycen, “I know that I’m going to leave here being pretty proud of myself that I’m a BHS grad, so I’m glad that I’m able to participate in events like this.”