Migration, racism and belonging: The focus of a podcast produced by Calgary non-profit

A local non-profit that works with vulnerable youth has produced a series of podcasts called 'Children of Immigration'.

The Art and Creative Skills Collective, a Calgary based non-profit has produced a podcast called Children of Immigration where Canadian youth share their experiences of racism.

Aroop Rayu, founding director of the collective and project lead, says when the topic is brought up the focus is on what adults are facing.

These stories are told from the perspective of people in their 20s.

“As a young person, you’re already going through a lot of changes emotionally, mentally, physically,” said Rayu.

“Then immigration gets thrown into all of this so I wanted to get into their (shoes and) understand what their stories were like and bring that perspective forward.”

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Rayu says the podcast is giving youth a platform but also a way for them to build their confidence knowing that others have lived similar experiences.

“We actually had youth come in from B.C., two youth came in from Ontario and two were from Calgary so it was a pretty interesting mix and we realized that racism is not only confined to a single province, it’s all across Canada,” she said.

“So we can form a community, we can sort of push for some change so that was the entire idea behind this podcast.”

Iyan Velji, 23, was born in Calgary with family roots in Africa and India. He’s alarmed at the amount of racism he’s seeing on social media and shared that in his podcast episode.

“At first I was angry and frustrated,” he said. “But as time goes on, you kind of just come to an understanding that unfortunately there are people out there that think this way and I think the best way to kind of reach those people is through education and kind of helping them understand the harms racism has done in the past.”

Velji says letting racist comments “slide” and go unchallenged could lead to something like the Holocaust happening in the future.

“You saw the treatment of Jewish people and the amount of deaths and just the impact that that has had and is still having on people today,” he said.

“You look at residential schools, the negative impact that had and is still something indigenous people are dealing with today so I think there’s so many examples in history of racism having actual material impact on people’s lives and that’s why I think it’s really important we don’t repeat the mistakes of history.”

Sage Carriere, 22, is another podcast participant who is from Calgary’s Indigenous community.

She and her friends are regularly stared at when they walk into a store by staff and customers and she shared what that feels like in her episode. She’s intrigued after hearing stories from the other participants.

“You get to see so many different stories and so many different contributions to our society,” she said. “And how one person can actually change that is by seeing the problem and learning from that and watching and knowing how to go about things, I feel this podcast is way too awesome for community to like, actually go and see and how we can help those who are experiencing racism.”

Rayu says the podcast isn’t geared just towards youth, but can benefit listeners of all ages.

“Every day you go to work, you don’t realize this racism because you don’t face it,” said Rayu.

“But when you take a break, you listen to a podcast like this, you reflect, I think that is something that will make you a little more sensitive towards these issues and sensitive towards other people as well.”

Learn more about the podcast here.