Hua Foundation

In their work on shark fin issues at Shark Truth, youth organizers Claudia Li (Canadian-born Chinese) and Kevin Huang (Taiwanese-Canadian) began to see that many youth in their Hua community – like them – were yearning for deeper engagement in environmentalism and looking for something to unite them across geopolitical boundaries.

However, like many, they often felt like they had to choose between the false dichotomy of ‘being an environmentalist’ (which is often seen as a ‘Western’ a value) and honouring their traditional heritage (which seemed archaic to many diasporic and Canadian-born youth). Yet, the values they’ve identified which drive their shark conservation campaigning (e.g. not wasting and creating a legacy for future generations) resonated deeply with the community.

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More about HUA Foundation

MISSION

Subsuming Shark Truth as a project of Hua Foundation, this new, expanded project is a response to the community’s growing desire to participate and is also a result of their individual evolutions as leaders. Hua Foundation fuses together these two worlds – that are seemingly opposed on the surface – to create a new space for changemakers that are inspired by both heritage and social change.

THE ISSUE

While Statistics Canada projects one third of Canada’s population will be a visible minority by 2031, ethnocultural leaders are majorly underrepresented in Canada’s environmental and nonprofit world. The statistics show: the population of Chinese descent is the largest ethnic group in Canada, and while interest in environmental issues is high, participation is low (Gallop, 2012); the HR Council of Canada identified a lack of engagement and investment in ethnocultural communities as a growing barrier for effective, systemic and large-scale change (2008). While there is work being done in cultural heritage and separately in environmental issues, there is little to no work being done that brings together these two worlds that have powerful synergistic potential.

OUR SOLUTIONS

Using a proven engagement model and communication strategy developed through Shark Truth, we aim to create and expand this liminal space where cultural heritage meets social change at four levels: hands (action), hearts (community), minds (education), and icons (celebration). We will focus by starting on environmental issues in food security and in cultural food knowledge.