Canada will share with Laos, along with other countries around the world, its diversity through cuisine and musical performances among other events in celebration of 150 years of confederation.

Charge d’Affaires of Canada in Laos Ms Lee-Anne Hermann, along with visiting Canadian chef Quentin Glabus and singer Jeremy Dutcher, held a press conference yesterday to discuss programme activities for the celebrations.

Inclusion, Youth, Environment, and Indigenous are all themes of the celebration of the 150 years of Canada, Ms Hermann said.

In line with these themes, the Office of the Embassy of Canada will be hosting a number of events this month to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary.

Highlighting First Nations culture, two artists from Canada will be in Vientiane to showcase their talents and conduct workshops with students. They are known for combining their aboriginal heritage with more modern influences to create a contemporary approach to music and cuisine, according to a press release from the Office of the Embassy.

Chef Quentin Glabus, who specialises in cuisine with aboriginal influences, also known as Modern Indigenous Cuisine, demonstrated his cooking techniques yesterday evening at the Lao National Institute of Hospitality (Lanith).

Mr Glabus has created his own approach to fusion aboriginal cuisine which will be featured at Le Silapa today, where he has created a five course First Nations inspired menu.

He said he also wished to share his cooking techniques with some of the young people in Laos in the hope that the combination of traditional and aboriginal cuisines would inspire their own modern creations.

A performance by Jeremy Dutcher, an emerging First Nations composer and vocal artist, will also take place at the French Institute this evening, starting at 7 pm. His music combines both classical and traditional operatic power with tuneful melodies derived from his Wolastoq (Maliseet) nation roots.

According to the Canadian Charge d’Affaires, there are more than 60 ethnic groups in Canada.

Sharing Canadian culture and values with the Lao people is a way for us to celebrate together our important anniversary, the Office of the Embassy of Canada stated in a recent press release.

Canada opened the Office of the Embassy in Vientiane in September 2015. Ms Hermann said that since then, bilateral trade and development relations between Canada and Laos have begun to grow.

As a development partner, Canada participated in the annual Round Table Implementation meeting and while there is no bilateral aid programme in Laos, the country has benefited from Canada’s Asean Regional Development Programming, as well as from multilateral channels and civil society partnerships.