CMHR events showcase women’s, kids’ equality

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This article was published 09/03/2015 (4027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fourteen-year-old Braden McMillan forms soccer balls out of plastic bags and newspaper while he delivers a kid-friendly message about human rights and international development.

The Grade 9 Westgate Mennonite Collegiate student and his mom, Brenda Kelly, were volunteers Sunday at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, where they showed visitors how to make soccer balls out of ordinary items, the way children do in some parts of Africa if they can’t afford toys. The hands-on activity combined sport with a child’s right to play, as set out in the United Nations convention on children’s rights.

“We’re just trying to show and convey how we need to find ways to make it better for the population (of children) to play,” said Braden, who applied and was selected for one of the museum’s highly sought-after volunteer positions. “This whole thing is centred around the right to play. I think children should be able to have the right to play just as a basic human right. It’s good development for things later in life, like teamwork and maybe strategy,” he said.

The activity was part of free CMHR events celebrating the 40th International Women’s Day and the countdown to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Kickoff is less than 90 days away for the “largest women’s sporting event in the world,” soccer fans were reminded.

Three panel discussions featured former Canadian national women’s soccer coach Sylvie Béliveau, former Manitoba Soccer Association president Christine O’Connor and national under-20 men’s soccer team coach Rob Gale, among others.

“This day is really a day of celebrating and honouring the past and the women who have made a difference,” said Béliveau, who is now the Canadian Soccer Association’s long-term player development manager. “That’s not only the women who publicly have changed the status of women and their participation in sport; that includes some men in organizations…. Some people have done some great things. This is a moment to highlight all these people who have contributed but also those who are not so publicly known.”

She lauded the accomplishments and leadership of players such as current Team Canada captain Christine Sinclair, but she noted past players who “started it all” in the 1980s, including Canadian Soccer Hall of Famers Geri Donnelly, Connie Cant, Charmaine Hooper and Silvana Burtini.

At another station for visitors on the fifth floor, visitors could learn how girls in some areas of Africa can’t play because they spend their days carrying water. Large containers full of water were available for visitors to pick up and carry to simulate the daily challenges faced by girls in those locations.

The theme of women’s rights nationally and internationally is woven throughout the CMHR’s galleries and is especially prominent in the Canadian Journeys gallery. Among the 18 story niches in the gallery is one dedicated to Thunder Bay artist and art educator Jaime Black’s REDress project, which features empty red dresses hanging in front of a backdrop of a forest to represent and engage visitors in discussion about the more than 1,000 missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada. Another niche is dedicated to the Famous Five women who fought in the Persons Case of 1929 to have women legally recognized as persons and eligible to serve in the Senate.

 

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca