But today, in the company of so many people united in this common cause, made it feel real. “We often talk about how the dementia-friendly community movement is spreading around the world.

'Many of us who are a part of dementia-friendly initiatives meet each other at individual programs and small events, in our own corners of the country,' says Marigrace Becker, MSW, Program Manager of Community Education and Impact of the UW MBWC. As Canadian dementia advocate Myrna Norman noted in her opening remarks, “We are here to make new friends, so welcome to this spot between Canada and the US with no wall and no border.' Before the festivities commenced, the group recognized the land as unceded ancestral territory of the Semiahmoo Nation.Īnd for the researchers and community organizers who have pushed forward dementia-friendly philosophy and pushed back on narratives that define people only by their disease and create stigma and fear, the event signaled a welcome shift. The event's location, the Peach Arch Provincial Park, was a meaningful spot for a celebration of inclusion and belonging, as it is free, open to the public, and accessible from both sides of the border without a passport.

I was excited to share with other people what we’re doing here in Seattle, and to find out what they’re doing in Canada,” says Paula Schwimmer, a planning committee member whose husband Rafe lives with dementia and participates in many Momentia Seattle activities. “For me, Dementia Without Borders is about the shared experience of living with dementia or caring for someone with dementia. All day, people swapped stories among others about their experience with a disease, or their work in a related field. The day also provided a place in which talking about dementia felt easier and normal. The elements of the day included a march across a park with enormous homemade banners, live performances of music and poetry, exhibits of art, dancing, Tai chi, food, and socializing. True to the description of a 'kaleidoscope of experience,' the festival offered a dynamic, ever-shifting glimpse of the colorful world a person with memory loss can inhabit.

Dance kaleidoscope and alzheimers