Mar 2016: It’s all so vibrant and busy. Around 40 tables side by side in the main hall of the Government house in Regina. All the kids have great projects made by children from all over the province. They are all threefold boards, covered by different bright and beautiful colours, with all the information and pictures displayed. A few have also made models that have added the attraction of their projects. The background of the Government House with flags on long polls all over makes the place so official and ceremonial. It makes me so happy to see kids working their best to further their knowledge. The future is still in good hands. I see all the kids busy in their heritage fair models. Either they are answering questions of the crowd or fixing their models or boards. They seem really involved and super happy to be here. Their gestures and laughter tell that they are very proud of themselves.
I am here to see my Grade 8 daughter’s project which has already won from school and regional heritage fair. She also has won the digital award for last year’s Provincial heritage fair and has put the best of her efforts this year. I very proudly look at her amazing board and a gorgeous display. I see the person from the radio interviewing her about her topic which is pretty daring and interesting. Relations between America and Canada and has done a great job on it. Pictures of the US and Canada flags drawn together on the back and a whole board divided in half, with great information has given it a very strong look. I love her dolls of Obama and Trudeau which has been taking everybody’s attention. The interviewer is talking to her on political issues and her replies are stunning me. She knows her grounds very well. During the political questions to her, the interviewer tells her that her dolls are super hit too. We both laugh and it’s time to go to the award ceremony. I am pretty sure by the comments, attention and praise she got that she will get one of three major awards. The interviewer predicts the same too.
We are sitting in the ceremony, awards are being announced. I cannot wait and I am super happy that I am going to be there for my daughter’s big day. There are three major awards and I am hoping for one of them. They start calling the names and the first award goes to ……second goes to ……… and third goes too …….. All done. I can not believe it. How is it possible? The standard of her board and model are clearly high which I have been hearing all along the journey and She is the only one interviewed for radio. Oh, they have started calling the top 10 projects now. Ok, maybe I was wrong, maybe there were better projects, she was still an outstanding project and she would place among the top 10 at least. I am listening closely for her name . 1..2…3….4…5….6…7…8,….9…..10 …All names are called. Even kids with really immature projects are in but she is not there. I want to vanish from there. I have never felt this much humiliation before. I can not look at my daughter’s face. I can see tears in her eyes, disbelief in her broken heart. So many sleepless nights which she spent working on it and high quality of project moves in front of my eyes. I don’t have words to comfort her. I really don’t want to walk in between people there. I can’t think of a reason as to why this would have happened, and then all at once it hits me in a numbing wave of pain. The sideways glances I had grown accustomed too. The way the older judges refused to talk to me while they proudly shook hands with the other parents. How when I stood beside my daughter people would not come so close to her board. Yet, when I left they flocked to see her model for the project, which included a working hydroelectric power plant!
I come back to reality and look at the people around us. What are they thinking of us? I feel they are laughing at our skin colour. I feel they are laughing at the hijabs around our heads. I feel them saying, you are never going to be equivalent to us. Look at your skin colour. I feel warmth in my eyes and my cheeks are flashing hot. I realized something that I had to heartbreakingly explain to my children. That we are different, even in a society where they feel protected most of the time. Moments like this can not be avoided and this was a reality we had to learn to accept.
PS: I did not assume her project was the best because she is my daughter. After the heritage fair had finished. We got a letter from the Provincial Heritage fair organizers that after reviewing the judging and the reviews they had received from the visitors that day. They had realized that judges that day were especially harsh on her and she “had been judged unfairly”, but they could not change their decision. The letter from the main organizers praised her project, apologized and even had a compensation prize enclosed.
ECS110 
This was a very touching story. It is heartbreaking that your daughter had to go through the horrible pain of not winning even though the work she had done was outstanding. I would have liked more descriptions of what your daughter’s and the other projects looked like. I found your story to be quite lengthy to read. I am surprised that a letter was sent later on apologizing. That would have made it harder because you as a parent would have wanted your daughter to be recognized to the public, but she was not mentioned at the awards ceremony. Overall this was a great connection to the topic!
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