Deep Fried Curried Perogies

This is a one-woman show by Michelle Todd about growing up in Edmonton and trying to figure out how she is going to raise her son.

What do you get when a Jamaican Filipino and a Ukrainian Brit start a family? A Jalipinukranibritinadian? A Deep Fried Curried Perogy? Definitely a legacy full of stories, hair trauma and certain indigestion. Touching, funny, smart - a show for anyone who is black, white, Ukrainian, Asian, European, flat-chested, short, breathing…

Michelle (Canadian, Philipino, Jamaican) and I met for drinks one night prior to me seeing the show. Her beautiful son Justin, the product of a loving relationship with her boyfriend Bob (Canadian, British, Ukranian) is the inspiration for this retrospective look of growing up in a visibly ethnic community and what does being an ethnic minority mean in Canada. What identity is she going to share with Justin? How will Justin define his Canadian"ness"?

Without giving too much away (if you are going to be at the Calgary, Edmonton or Toronto fringes you have to see this play), Justin's name is after Justin Trudeau - Pierre Trudeau's son. Can't get much more Canadian than that... If that is one of the measurements for Canadian identity.

Michelle has some interesting insights on what we have in common. Most of them stem around how our families raised us and what she as a mother and what her parents wanted from her. This seems to be a theme - successful and happy children. The only defninition of success that I have managed to get, however, has been pursuing happiness.

In order to be happy and therefore successful (based on the above measurement), do we have to know our cultural roots and heritage? My roots stem from Eastern Europe, Germany and the United States. How far back do I go? When people ask me about my background my first answer is Canadian. The next question is, "But you are Jewish, so where did your parents come from?" Well... my dad was born in Germany but my mom is Canadian. This is promptly followed by, "Okay, what about your mom's parents?" At what point is just saying Canadian going to be enough of an answer? Is it that our country, Trudeau's Mosaic, is still too young to have Canadians, we have to have been from elsewhere; or perhaps that it is this very mosaic that is preventing us from just being Canadian? Don't get me wrong, I much prefer the mosaic to the melting pot.

Vanity Fair recently published an Africa Issue. There is an article about written by Spencer Wells on the Genographic Project. The basic premise is that, "Somewhere between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, Africa saved Homo sapiens from extinction." The Genographic Project is charting the DNA shared by more than 6 Billion people and it all started in Africa. "You may be from Cambodia or County Cook but you are carrying a map of your wanderings of your ancestors as they moved from the savannas of Africa to wherever your family came from most recently." The markers on your DNA indicate that you share an ancestor with someone else... in essence this project is creating the family tree of homo sapiens. There are several reasons for the migration (you will have to read the article). So perhaps when people ask me where I am from and Canada doesn't suffice as an answer I should just say I am from Africa...