This October, celebrate Global Diversity Awareness Month and pay tribute to the diverse minds and beliefs held by all cultures around the world. We live in a multicultural society and embracing the values of various cultures only strengthens our understanding and appreciation of the world. Open your mind to new views and ideas, appreciate cultural differences, and enjoy a fresh perspective you may have been missing. It helps you become a true citizen of the world.
HISTORY OF GLOBAL DIVERSITY AWARENESS MONTH
After the Second World War, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly at the Palais de Chaillot, in Paris. The Declaration represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. It is essentially an acknowledgment that we should remember and understand the value of each human being, regardless of their nationality, color, race, sex, gender, country of origin, language, or otherwise.
As the world becomes more and more connected and globalized, it’s important to remember that a ‘global monoculture’, or a homogenization of cultures, kills off traditional cultures and unique traits of people. Embracing cultural diversity – in all aspects of life – is the answer to avoiding a global monoculture. The phrase ‘cultural diversity’ can also refer to having different cultures respect each other’s differences.
Although its origins are difficult to trace, Global Diversity Awareness Month represents the perfect opportunity for you to learn more about new cultures, and explore some of the diversity that makes the world such a wonderful place.
SPEAKERS THAT CAN HELP YOUR EMPLOYEES LEARN HOW TO EMBRACE CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Roy Gluckman
Roy Gluckman is a qualified attorney of the High Court of South Africa and the director of Cohesion Collective, an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) consulting and training firm. Roy has been speaking professionally on issues relating to EDI since 2010 and is an exceptionally engaging, highly sophisticated, and passionate speaker and facilitator.
Roy believes in having tough conversations; approaching his material with honesty, authenticity, and simplicity. Roy has mastered the art of making the difficult subject matter of EDI easily digestible for audiences of all types and all occasions. As a keynote speaker, panelist, programme director and facilitator Roy continues to captivate and challenge audiences to pause and introspect, something he believes we do not do enough of.
Topics/Sessions:
* EDI in the workplace:
This is an exciting one! In this talk, Roy unpacks EDI as a key factor that affects the Employee Experience (“EX”). It is impossible to talk about the importance of trust within organisations if we do not acknowledge that we have been taught who to trust and who not to trust. Trust is NOT earned. Trust is given!
* EDI in our community:
The call for greater inclusion requires us to understand that we exist in a society that has a history of exclusion and that this history is alive and well in the behaviours and structures of everyday life. This is such an important conversation to talk about EDI in our communities as we need to understand that no matter how hard organisations may try, we can never deflect the social ills, mistrust, fear and anger that exists in our communities from entering the workplace.
Melene Rossouw
Melene Rossouw is the Founder of Women Lead Movement, an organization whose aim is to educate, empower and inspire women to lead social change in their communities through Human Rights and Leadership training curricula. Melene is an admitted Attorney by the High Court in South Africa; a 2018 Obama Foundation Leader: Africa; 2019 Mandela Washington Fellow and an internationally recognised Gender Rights activists by ONE Global Campaign. Melene also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from the University of the Western Cape, with a specialization in Public and Constitutional Law.
Topics/Sessions:
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* Leading Impactful Work
* Gender Equality
Nyadol Nyuon
Nyadol Nyuon OAM was born in a refugee camp in Itang, Ethiopia, and raised in Kakuma Refugee camp, Kenya. In 2005, at the age of eighteen, she moved to Australia as a refugee.
In 2022 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of her service to human rights and refugee women. Since then, Nyadol has completed a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne and worked as a commercial litigator with Arnold Bloch Leibler.
Nyadol is a vocal advocate for human rights, multiculturalism, the settlement of people with refugee experiences and those seeking asylum. She has worked and volunteered extensively in these areas with a range of organisations.
Nyadol is also a regular media commentator in these areas, having appeared on ABC’s The Drum, as a panellist on Q&A and contributing to The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and the Saturday Paper, to name just a few.
In both 2011 and 2014, Nyadol was nominated as one of the hundred most influential African Australians. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Future Justice Prize.
In 2018 her efforts to combat racism were widely recognised, with achievements including the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Racism. It Stops With Me Award. The prestigious award was in recognition of her advocacy and activism on behalf of the Australian-African and Melbourne’s South Sudanese communities. Nyadol also received the Harmony Alliance Award for significant contribution to empowering migrant and refugee women, and was a co-winner of the Tim McCoy Prize for her advocacy on behalf of the South Sudanese Community. She also received the Afro-Australian Student Organisation‘s Unsung Hero Award.
Topics/Sessions:
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* On Resilience: As a refugee and an immigrant, Nyadol has had to be resilient and knows that resilience is a skill everyone needs in an ever-changing world. In her resilience speeches, Nyadol shares what she has learned from her personal journey and how one can practice resilience in their life.
* Key Takeaways:
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* Reflect on ways you can live a meaningful life even during challenging times
* Attitudes & mindsets one can cultivate to build resilience
* The steps Nyadol takes when faced with a difficult issue
* Diversity & Inclusion: Nyadol is passionate about countries and organizations reflecting its diversity and works with organisations and individuals to discuss the challenges and solutions to improving cultural diversity. Nyadol’s approach is to have an honest, sometimes difficult conversations, with organisations and individuals.
The goal is to challenge people views, to affirm the proven benefit of diversity in the workplace and to assist in raising awareness, and if organisations are prepared, assisted them in developing a framework for working with linguistically and culturally diverse groups.
Dr. Abby Hamilton
She is a 2-time TEDx speaker and Filipino-American industrial/organizational psychologist who speaks on assertiveness and culture. She is also the Director of Student Services at Everglades University in Tampa and Principal Scientist at EQMatch focusing on emotional intelligence assessment. Dr. Abby is the Senior Vice Chairman of the Philippine Cultural Foundation, Inc. and Vice President of National Association of Asian American Professionals – Tampa chapter.
Topics/Sessions:
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* Finding Power to Break through Glass Ceilings
* Assert Yourself Professionally and with Class
* Breaking Unconscious Bias
* Filipino/Asian Culture and the Bamboo Ceiling
* Using Emotional Intelligence to Level Up
* Leadership Excellence with Cultural Dexterity
Hi’ilani Shibata
A lifelong learner, Hiʻilani Shibata has spent the last 25 years in the field of education, both formal and informal. Born and raised in Hilo, Hawaiʻi, she moved to the island of Oʻahu to attend the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. While finishing her last year in college she was also teaching ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi at Kailua
Intermediate school part time and realized that formal education was not her calling. She then joined the education department of the Bishop Museum where she blossomed in informal education in which sharing the Hawaiian culture through the kūpuna was the mission and she was able to travel all over Hawaiʻi and the United States to share the aloha of our kanaka ʻoiwi.
Hiʻilani dedicated 12 years of her life as the Education Operations Manager at the Bishop Museum and ended that chapter of her life to start a family. Today she still does contract work as a Hawaiian Culture trainer and consultant, she is a full time kumu at a Hawaiian focused charter school, Ka Waihona o ka Na’auao, and with her small ʻohana, mālama ʻāina in multiple spaces on O’ahu. She is the co-founder of Ka Mahina Project where people connect with the Hawaiian Lunar phases and the mahina to find and maintain health spiritually, emotionally, and physically
Topics/Sessions:
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* Aloha – the foundation of Hawaiian Culture and its relation to the world.
* Mālama ʻĀina – to care for the land in which cares for ourselves. Our relationship with our natural environment is integral to the health and vitality of ourselves.
* Mahina – the moon, itʻs 30 identified Hawaiian lunar phases, itʻs relationship to our overall health as it guides our actions and emotions through the influence of the moon on fluids on the earth.
* ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi – Hawaiian Language, introduction, pronunciation, and specific words and phrases, their meaning and metaphoric emphasis.
* ʻĀina Mōmona – the abundant land, the understanding of abundance and wealth through the connection to our natural world.
* Hawaiian Healing practices – The various specialities of our Hawaiian people – lomilomi (massage), lāʻau lapaʻau (plant medicines), Hoʻoponopono ( family conflict resolution process).
* Waiwai – definition of wealth from a Hawaiian perspective focuses on the health of the land and ocean first then how we as stewards cultivate and interact with our natural environment.
* Pīkai & Kapukai – traditional practices of cleansing physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
If you are looking for the right speaker or experience for Global Diversity Awareness Month email us at contact@notainclusion.com or visit our website to check out the full list of speakers we work with at notainclusion.com