In our family, we inherited two opposing views of \u201cfamily.\u201d My father came from an old Danish family, whose definition of \u201cfamily\u201d meant those whom by law one was prohibited to marry; the rest were \u201crelatives.\u201d My mother came from a large old Latvian farmers family of nine children. Her interpretation of \u201cfamily\u201d was as broad and inclusive as possible \u2013 even extending the title of \u201caunt\u201d or \u201cuncle\u201d to completely unrelated but dear people! That is also my interpretation of \u201cfamily\u201d and of Latvian \u201cfamily\u201d: let\u2019s make it as broad and inclusive as possible! Let\u2019s include as many as we can! After all, we are a numerically small people and we simply cannot afford to lose anyone from our \u201cfamily\u201d because of pre-conceptions or prejudices. M\u0113s, beidzot, esam maza tauta; nevaram at\u013cauties nevienu nepieskait\u012bt m\u016bsu latvie\u0161u \u0123imenei. <\/p>\n
This summer, I participated in several meetings of the Diasporas konsultat\u012bv\u0101 padome (The Consulting Committee for Diaspora Affairs or DKP), which is part of the Latvian Foreign Affairs Ministry and includes representatives of various governmental ministries and agencies as well as representatives of Latvian organizations outside of Latvia. Currently approximately 420,000 Latvians live outside of Latvia — almost 20% of all Latvians! The main focus of these meetings was to create a three-year plan for co-ordinating work between Latvian state institutions and diaspora groups. The goals of this co-operation as stated in the current Diaspora Law are to:<\/p>\n
In short: The DKP’s goal is to strengthen and expand our Latvian \u201cfamily\u201d in Latvia and the world.<\/p>\n
That has been the mission of the LNAK since its founding in 1949, and we continue to strive to do just that! Of course, there have been problems and obstacles. The long distances between Latvian communities in Canada, assimilation, the decline of Latvian language skills, and other challenges of everyday life have continually forced us to examine the boundaries of our belonging to the Latvian \u201cfamily.\u201d Who belongs? Who does not? How do you understand your belonging? <\/p>\n
I personally believe that the role of the LNAK in the current Latvian government\u2019s diaspora policymaking is to relentlessly remind all governmental bodies that the Latvian \u201cdiaspora\u201d should be seen in the broadest and most inclusive terms. I believe this to be necessary for the Latvian people to flourish in Latvia and throughout the world. We should always be pushing the boundaries of belonging ever wider to include everyone whose attachment to Latvia and Latvian culture will certainly be different but perhaps just as heartfelt and meaningful.<\/p>\n
I think that within our Latvian \u201cfamily\u201d everyone should be cherished and respected \u2014 no matter if your Latvian is perfect or not, no matter whom you love, no matter how you wish to define yourself! You are \u2014 and always will be \u2014 a treasured member of the Latvian family. And the LNAK welcomes you with open arms! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"home-page-display-option":[],"class_list":["post-4157","organizaciju-zina","type-organizaciju-zina","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lnak-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-rotated.jpg",480,640,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-225x300.jpg",225,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-rotated.jpg",480,640,false],"large":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-rotated.jpg",480,640,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-rotated.jpg",480,640,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/lnak.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Fritz-bilde-2023-Nov-rotated.jpg",480,640,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ADMIN","author_link":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"In our family, we inherited two opposing views of \u201cfamily.\u201d My father came from an old Danish family, whose definition of \u201cfamily\u201d meant those whom by law one was prohibited to marry; the rest were \u201crelatives.\u201d My mother came from a large old Latvian farmers family of nine children. Her interpretation of \u201cfamily\u201d was as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/organizaciju-zina\/4157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/organizaciju-zina"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/organizaciju-zina"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"home-page-display-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lnak.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/home-page-display-option?post=4157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}