Overview
Join students from around the world for interactive dialogue about youth mobilization for a just recovery.
The world continues to face massive disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, the amplification of existing injustices and, at the same time, the climate crisis continues. But out of this period of upheaval also arises the opportunity to organize for collective action, transformation and innovative change. Governments, communities and individuals face important choices about how to move forward in ways that build a healthier, more just, more sustainable future.
Moderator Jenny Blackbird will be joined by youth advocates critically thinking and working at the frontlines of the intersection between climate, decolonizing, racial and economic justice and who are taking up the challenge to find innovative ways to move forward with hope and solidarity.
Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive dialogue/sharing activities in small groups following the panel component of the event.
Please join us for this essential opportunity for inspiration and connection.
How to join the conversation / What to know
- This event will take place entirely online. Students will be participating through Zoom. You should have a reliable internet connection, computer or phone, and a working microphone and camera.
- Once you register, you will receive confirmation of your spot in the event.
- The Zoom meeting information and link and password will be provided 24 hours before the event via email.
Featured Guests/Speakers
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ModeratorJenny Blackbird
Outreach Communications and Programming Coordinator
Jenny Blackbird is Nehiyaw from Kehewin Cree Nation, Treaty Six Territory & Finnish-Canadian. Jenny is cross appointed with The Centre for Indigenous studies as Outreach Communications and Programming Coordinator and the Ciimaan/Kahuwe’ya/Qajaq Indigenous Language Initiative program coordinator.
Jenny has been volunteering at Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS) since 2008 as a community Auntie for the Giiwedin Anang council, which supports Indigenous families who are navigating through the child welfare system. Jenny also sits on the ALS community council diversion program, as advisory committee member, and council member. She is an old-style jingle dress dancer, hand drummer/singer and a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in fashion design. Jenny is producer and co-host of the “Indigenous Waves” Radio show, on CIUT 89.5 FM at 6 PM Mondays. Jenny is the recipient of the 2016 “Culture Keeper Award” Minaake Award from Native Women’s Resource Center and a 2019 recipient of an IDERD award for the International Day for the Elimination of Racism at University of Toronto. She was also presidential appointee to the Hart House Board of Stewards 2019-2020.
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WelcomeRayna Sutherland
Rayna Sutherland (she/her) is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto Scarborough (USTC) studying International Development and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her past research and community-based organizing experiences include working with organizations such as a Tanzanian member-based small-scale farming organization, MVIWATA; the UTSC Women’s and Trans Centre, and Natural Justice, a pan-African social and environmental justice organization.
These experiences further solidified her passion for “justice” mobilizing through anti-oppressive, decolonial, intersectional feminism, community-based, and action-oriented frameworks and approaches, ever-grounded in relationships.
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Anna Denardin
Anna Denardin is an activator of networks in Latin America of the Global Regeneration Colab and co-develops strategies to give voice to regenerative narratives from the Global South. Master's student in sustainability in Architecture and Urbanism, researches possibilities of intersection between biomimicry, traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous construction techniques to co-create a regenerative architectural future.
She investigates approaches to reimagine the ways of inhabiting a more than human world in a multispecies collaboration, incorporating inspiration in living systems to achieve a symbiotic architecture that encourages positive relationships between humans, built environment and nature.
As an illustrator and graphic designer, she has had the opportunity to participate in collective exhibitions in Latin America, Asia, Russia and Europe. The combination of architecture, art and technology leads to a pathway that includes public and academic talks, educational courses, co-creation of collaborative projects and regenerative consultancies.
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Kanishka Sikri
Feminist writer, consultant
Kanishka Sikri is a feminist writer, consultant, and theorist unravelling the multiple faces and forms of raced-sexed-gendered violence. Committed to crafting new creative lineages from post-de-colonial thought and transnational intersectionality, she yearns to make sense of the messiness of violence as the mother tongue of our dominator culture so as to cultivate worlds without its mutilating bounds.
Her hope is that in unsettling the contradictory violence and oppressive logics of power we have become settled to, we are able to settle in free, liberatory and pluriverse worlds. Kanishka is formally trained as an international development specialist from the Centre for Critical Development Studies at the University of Toronto, and is a South Asian immigrant settler from Dubai, in Tkaronto.
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Samantha Suppiah
Samantha Suppiah is a sustainable design strategist and chartered engineer in the field of urbanism and architecture, now based in Southeast Asia after 12 years in Northern Europe. A global citizen involved in various international regeneration network. Samantha seeks to build a global platform for South-South regenerative dialogue.
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Beverley Thompson
Beverley Thompson is a third year student at Indiana University Bloomington studying environmental sustainability studies and international studies. She is an eclectic individual powered by plants, books, and sunshine with a focus on sustainable development, environmental justice, and creating a more equitable and inclusive world.
Her days are consumed by climate and social justice action with aspirations in shifting society toward a more progressive world that is centered around social and environmental growth. She is currently the president of Students for a New Green World, which is an environmental organization that promotes equitable, inclusive, and effective climate justice in Indiana.
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Diana Yoon
Diana Yoon is a climate and housing justice activist. Currently, Diana is a Master’s student in Geography and a Teaching Assistant at York University. Previously, she accelerated GTHA climate solutions at The Atmospheric Fund as the Regional Outreach Lead. Outside of work, Diana was a founding member of Climate Justice Toronto. She now organizes with Friends of ChinatownTO to advocate for affordable housing and prevent displacement.
Diana was also the federal NDP candidate for Spadina-Fort York in the 2019 election. In 2017, Diana was awarded as a "Top 25 Environmentalists Under 25”. As a queer, young woman of colour, she is committed to always putting equity at the forefront of our low-carbon future.
About the Global Commons
The Hart House Global Commons is an international dialogue space that connects students participating from multiple global locations to engage in real-time conversations about issues that are pressing and pertinent to everyone, regardless of place. We hope you will join us for a unique opportunity to connect across contexts, exchange dialogue and perspectives, and learn from each other—all without leaving your living space!
Community Supporters
Michael R. De Angelis & Family Global Innovation Fund.
International Partners
University of Toronto Sponsors
