Some days I’m more optimistic than others and some days I’m not, but that’s the struggle of making change. “I’ve struggled with PTSD since I was a teenager,” she says.
Larissa by Monica Shafik (@beautyandthetreatz).
Areezo Najibzadeh is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Young Women’s Leadership Network based in Toronto. Tina Yeonju Oh is a 20-year old environmental activist from Edmonton, whose work focuses on climate action in Canada and its intersectional social movements.
The two started their first chapters at their own school Seaquam Secondary and East Three Secondary in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Your email address will not be published.
She now applies anti-racism and Indigenous research to renewable energy policy and program development in Canada, while advocating for Indigenous leadership and anti-racism in the global energy sector. That’s not a radical thing—it’s something all the natives I grew up with did. Indigenous Climate Action is pleased to formally announce Melina Laboucan-Massimo as the Campaigns Director.
(with summa cum laude!) In 2014, she sued the Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Council, challenging its residency laws that prevent non-indigenous partners of indigenous people from living on the territory.
That’s an evolution that I find really important.
GET A 2-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION FOR ONLY $19.99. (That consideration extends to her automatically spelling out Inuktitut words for me.) I first saw her on television during the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015.
I knew I had to speak with Waneek Horn-Miller.
Fae is the Senior Associate of Engagement and Mobilization with Wisdom2Action Ltd. As an expert on LGBTQ2+ inclusion in education, health, and social services, Fae has trained thousands of educators and service providers in Canada and around the world. I stand in solidarity with natives and non-natives—with everyone who is standing up for the earth.”, WHM: “I’ve seen change in the 27 years since the Oka crisis because I’ve been aware and part of this movement for so long. While the youngest generations are facing global crises from climate change to mass migration, they are standing up with the confidence and leadership to make substantial change. As a community organizer, Fae has led growing efforts to support women, queer and trans people across Ontario. When she is not speaking publicly, she is using some of her prize money to teach other young people how to test waterways and get involved in clean water work. You can read more about Fae’s work at https://www.faejohnstone.com/. (She was the director of community relations for Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, a national inquiry created to examine the systemic causes of violence against indigenous women.) “The land is what has taught me love, and water has taught me love, and that’s why I fight so much for water,” she says.
I believe it can be a great country, but I think there’s a huge amount of work to be done.”, WHM: “We’ve crossed a threshold and there’s no going back, hopefully.” We can still be who we are as Inuit, take pride in staying calm under pressure, while also ensuring that the outside world understands how upset we might be about a certain issue.”. Since then, she’s been working with the Ontario Government and non-profits to research and develop Indigenous and anti-racism policies in Canada. To date, Faith has repeated the same gesture, giving 4,500 blankets to people all over the world in 40 countries. As a transfeminine and non-binary youth, Fae is passionate about providing quality sexual and mental health resources for young people. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg and the University of Victoria’s master of arts in Indigenous governance program, Greyeyes is currently a community organizer in … Meet the bright, bold and inspiring young Canadians who have set out to change our world for the better.
Get inspired and stay up-to-date with Level’s progress. But the world needs to hear from more indigenous voices.
The network aims to provide a trans-inclusive and anti-oppressive atmosphere for young women to thrive.
A graduate with a Bachelor of Social Work, Fae works as a Sex Educator for Venus Envy and a Program Assistant for the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. Arnaquq-Baril is soft-spoken and careful about her word choices, often pausing mid- sentence.
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This understanding came about on an expedition to the Arctic in 2016 with the Students on Ice Foundation. Today, Stella has been sharing her message around the world receiving numerous awards and prizes along the way. Can't decide if you should send your kids back to school this fall? She was a games ambassador—she’s a former water-polo player and the first Mohawk woman to ever be on a Canadian Olympic team (in 2000).
Here are 6 phenomenal young people in Canada who are leading that charge and will inspire you to join their efforts in changing the world for the better. I guess I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to be anything more than an armchair activist. Yesterday, August 12, was International Youth Day, a UN initiative to highlight the leading issues impacting young people. What needs to happen, sooner rather than later, is coming up with solutions to housing, water, poverty and suicide.”, SF: “It has always been a touchy subject for me. Winner of the prestigious, 2015 Everyday Political Citizen award by Toronto based organization Samara Canada, Cory Nicotine. We want to honour the pain of people who have gone through colonization, but we’re also trying to do something for the victims.”, SF: “With Standing Rock, I had to remind myself that the battle wasn’t about the pipeline; the battle was about people organizing.
SF: “I think this movement is about taking back the power that we’ve always assumed is there but hasn’t actually been there.”, AAB: “I posted my own #MeToo story on Facebook.
Their Advisory Council and public events provide support and community for young women working towards positions in leadership.
At a young age, Abhayjeet realized that to get people to really care about an issue, it helps if they are personally connected to the cause.
When Vishal was 10 his entire life changed when he witnessed extreme poverty first hand on a trip to Rajasthan, India. They experience higher rates of domestic violence and homicide than non- indigenous Canadian women. The Inuit face a more difficult situation than other indigenous people in Canada; they are especially isolated, and their struggles—a housing crisis, food shortages, the highest youth-suicide rates in the country, to name a few—are often overlooked. A recent graduate and mother of a two-year old daughter, Larissa uses her diverse background to advocate for Indigenous and black visibility in Canada and beyond. We all know that indigenous people in Canada face a barrage of hardships—discrimination, racism and higher rates of poverty, incarceration and substance issues, to name a few. Read this. They are organizing marches, walkouts, protests, campaigns, leading nonprofits, lobbying governments, and challenging norms in every aspect of society. In late 2018, Abhayjeet was awarded $5,000 from Shaw’s 2018 Kindness Sticks Grant for promoting social inclusion and breaking down the stigmas against Indigenous communities. I don’t know if the indigenous world is having an effect on the #MeToo movement, but I hope the #MeToo movement will have an effect on the indigenous world.”, SF: “We haven’t heard enough from indigenous women.
My biggest takeaway on how Canadians can engage with these issues is this: Be informed, which is as easy as tapping the “follow” button on social media.
Her fearless activism and devotion to Indigenous communities has won her international regards, including the Junior Citizen of the Year and International Children’s Peace Prize. “Activism is [also] knowing where you’re best served,” she says. Horn-Miller was just 14.
So I reached out to a few of the more comfortably vocal indigenous women I’m inspired by to see what empowers their engagement, hoping that maybe their stories could help me learn to embrace this part of myself. As a delegate to the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition, Tina has advocated for environmental action across the world.
When this teen from Peterborough was 9-years-old, her aunt told her how she would get very cold from her cancer treatments, so in turn, Faith made her aunt a fleece blanket to keep her warm. I’m part of this land; it is my future and my heart. Many people were exposed to sexual, physical and verbal abuse, cultural denial and having their mouths washed out with soap for speaking their language. Maitland Shaheen is a Level volunteer and incoming senior at the University of Ottawa, studying a joint honours BA in Communication and Political Science. Fox is the next generation of indigenous voices, using social media as her megaphone.