Meet Tyjana Connolly - Panelist

Tyjana Connolly is a recent graduate in Political Science. She is Co-Founder of Black Eco Bloom, a non-profit that focuses on intersectional environmentalism and supporting Black women to enter the environmental sector. She is also a Campaign Organizer at PSAC& Community Liaison at United Nations Association of Canada. She is a co-author of Climate Change & Inequalities in the Research Handbook on Inequalities and Work.

Meet Nicole Austin - Panelist

Nicole Austin is a food justice advocate who knows nutrition and food are central to individual and community well-being. She champions restorative justice, progressive urban planning, environmental stewardship, and community-based initiatives upon which marginalized people can build capacity and become food sovereign on their own terms. Nicole firmly believes positive, sustainable food system transformation comes through collaboration, knowledge-sharing, intentional reconciliation, and the integration of ancestral knowledge from across the Earth. She is leading Black-centric program development at the Urban Farm at Toronto Metropolitan University, and participates in Strategic Planning with Toronto’s Black Food Sovereignty Initiative. Nicole holds a degree in Geography and Environmental Science and recently earned a B.A.Sc. in Nutrition & Food

Meet Patricia Wilson - Panelist

Patricia Wilson is an environmentalist, community leader and social justice advocate who is passionate about diversifying the environmental field and advocates for proper representation and inclusivity in this sector. In 2021 Patricia founded Diverse Nature Collective (DNC) - a grassroots organization that works to empower, mobilize and create space for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour within the environmental movement and reduce barriers to racialized folks in accessing nature.

Through workshops, collaborative events and gatherings, Patricia creates BIPOC-centered spaces that help racialized folks gain confidence, build skills and connect with each other. She also works with academic institutions, environmental non-profits and other organizations to promote diversity,equity & inclusion practices within their work through an intersectional lense.

Meet Jasveen Brar - Panelist

Jasveen Brar is a climate educator from the prairies. Her work centres around environmental justice, intersectional environmentalism and ensuring that youth are involved in decision-making. She holds a B.Sc. from Dalhousie University in Biology and Sustainability and has experience working in ocean conservation, polar policy and education.

Meet Sam Howden - Moderator and Panelist

Sam (they/them) Howden socially locates themselves as a 2S, Queer, Pan, Mad, Métis Graduate Social Work student. Sam’s major research focuses on Indigenous food sovereignty, land defence, water protection, and cultural revitalization practices which occur in urban environments. Sam’s work is rooted in Anti-colonialism, Anti-Racism, and Disability Justice. Sam has worked with Indigenous Food Sovereignty for the past 4 years.

Meet Sam Whiteye - Host

Samantha Whiteye is a community leader from Eelūnapéewi Lahkéewiit. She is very passionate and dedicated to her work within Southern Ontario and the Indigenous Communities she actively serves. Samantha comes from grassroots immersed experiences which she utilizes her lived experience and understandings to create space, advocate and lead conversations centering on Truth and Reconciliation. Leading with an ethical two eyed seeing approach Samantha demonstrates leadership as a changemaker in the environmental sector.

Samantha is very knowledgeable and connected to her Lunaapeew/Lenape culture as she continuously weaves the medicine and teachings into her work and daily lifestyle. She is also passionate about ancestral seed sovereignty and hopes it helps build bridges back to identity for her people.

Over the past year Samantha has worked closely with Carolinian Canada Coalition and continues her work in a new role as Indigenous Leadership Director to help shift the narratives in conservation.

About the Event:

The Importance of Intersectionality in Environmentalism

Join us for the opportunity to connect and engage.

This event is Part 2 of the seven-part series: Seeding Relationships to Heal the Land. This event series creates a platform for grassroots changemakers to share the importance of their work with the broader community.

People of colour have long been excluded from environmental policy and conservation—creating blind spots that perpetuate inequality. We hope to create space for intersectionality and racial disparities among Black and racialized communities to discuss on-going effects and impacts of colonization and environmental racism in today's communities.

Collectively we need to create space for the fight for racial equity alongside the fight against biodiversity loss. In our community there are powerful advocates for social and environmental justice and these leaders will share how their work is shifting us towards a more just and sustainable future.

This event is part of the Shifting the Paradigm 2022 - 2023 Forum Events.

Registration is $50 with sliding scale. Save $70 when you purchase all Forum Series Events, or become a Carolinian Canada Member and save even more ($20 per Forum session) - Join Today.

Funds raised through ticket sales help to equitably pay our speakers, and to support Carolinian Canada's Indigenous Leadership program.

Please use the sliding scale to pay what you can if you are BIPOC and don't have the means to attend, or if you would like to pay more to assist others to attend.

Carolinian Canada acknowledges that we live on the traditional territories of many nations including the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Lunaapeew, the Wendat and the Mississauga; and the rights and treaties of the many, diverse Indigenous people who live here now.

We commit to the teachings the Two Row Wampum and the One Dish One Spoon Wampum; and our duty to reconcile, learn more and create safe spaces for Indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives to meet and discuss the issues that matter to everyone.

Carolinian Canada is supported financially by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, 3M, WWF-Canada, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Greenbelt Foundation, City of London, London Community Foundation, Pillar Non-Profit Network, many partners and donors.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD TO YOUR NETWORK

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