 Welcome everyone. Glad everyone can join us today. Just a quick housekeeping note, just to ensure that everyone keeps themselves on mute. And if you need any interpretation at the bottom of your zoom window, there is an interpretation button down there. So all you have to do is click on it and select the language you wish to hear. So you have an option between French and English. So you just have to click click on that interpretation button and you will be all set. Okay, so we are going to open this. And I would like to it's my, my pleasure to introduce Ed Collins, who is the manager of indigenous relations for and globe. He is a lifelong citizen and resident of Fort William First Nation. Ed has graduated from a local high school within the city of Thunder Bay, and then further enrolled with Confederation College. Ed started his career with his community as partner property manager with the an M key mountain corporation, supervising over 150,000 square feet of commercial space. The success of Fort Williams land claim settlements allowed for bigger and better opportunities in economic development, and Ed sees this opportunity to broaden and strengthen his skills with the position as economic development manager. Ed allowed him to represent Fort William First Nation in various industrial venues, such as the Fort William First Nation solar park, and expansion to the Bullwater Steadmill plant located on the property owned by Fort William First Nation. He has sat on numerous boards in the past such as economic development committee city of Thunder Bay. The CEDC advisory committee, University of Toronto faculty of law advisory committee, President's advisory council on economic development for Lakehead University. President of super calm industries and Ontario First Nations Economic Development Association. President of the Ontario Director Council for the advancement of native development officers and on the board of governors for Confederation College. In 2011, Ed received the designated professional level Aboriginal economic development certification through the Council for advancement of native development officers. He is the Director of Indigenous relations for Englobe, where he works to create proper healthy meaningful partnerships and working relationships with industry and the First Nations. He has created training programs within his industry promoting and educating culture and issues of First Nations. Ed and his wife Nancy have two children and are proud to call Fort William First Nation their home. Ed, I give you the floor. Welcome. Thank you everybody. First of all, I want to say hello. Thank you for allowing me here. Before we start, it's always important to do a small prayer. A lot of times I do this much, but as we're on live. I can't do that, but these words of wisdom that I'm going to give you are were written by a very who I think was a very important man in my life. People may know him from TV shows movies, but I had a chance to sit and talk to him as a child. His name was Chief Ben George. If you ever get a chance to read some of his poems, but this is the one that I always bring to the table whenever I go anywhere. I have a copy of it on my wall as well. So I'd like to start this by saying these words of wisdom by him. Oh great spirit. His voice I hear in the winds. I come to you as one of your children. I need your strength in your wisdom. I'm not to be superior to my brother, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy myself. So much for that. So once again, my name is Ed Collins and I'm the manager of indigenous relations for Anglo in Thunder Bay. I am a member of Foreign First Nation as Connor explained. I am a pipe carrier for First Nation, but it carries a very special gift to get. It was gifted many years ago from an elder. So no matter where we go, it's very important to acknowledge the lands and I don't know where everybody is from here, but in Thunder Bay here. We acknowledge the land. We are the traditional territory of the Roberts Spirit Treaty and lands of which I sit on are the traditional territory of Portland First Nation. These are very important. We acknowledge the lands because we are stewards of the land. We are here to protect them, and we heard to acknowledge that thank you, Midwest creator for allowing us on to these lands as a member of Foreign First Nation. I want to say thank you for everybody out there. If you're, if you're near close or on a reserve, I'm going to send you guys for myself for a long amount to your lands in this way. I sit here and I'm trying to ponder the ratio between our two cultures and their struggles in life. I know from the past growing up in school, we only had a handful of Aboriginal students in our community in our school and a handful of black people. We were treated different than all others. The two of us were treated the same, if that makes sense. I can't sit here and say what it feels to be black in Canada or around the world, but I could say what it feels like to be First Nation Aboriginal. I don't even know what to call ourselves anymore. One year we're Aboriginal, one day we're Anishinaabe, one day we're Indigenous, so I don't even know what to call us anymore, but I do know what I am. However, we do share the true meaning of family, we do the true meaning of our rich cultures, and that same whooping from our grandmother or mums with the shoe if we get out of line, so we do share that as well. I can say, though, that we both have struggles, still today, back then and still today, but we are both strong people and we will survive. So these are my openings, I want to see them again. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Ed for these words. It's really beautiful. And thanks everyone for joining us. So my name is Radia and I'm the Global Partnership Coordinator for African Justice here at CAROS. It is really great to see so many faces today. I think it really speaks volume to the work we're trying to do here. I also want to thank our amazing panelists for sharing their lives, their stories and their experiences with us today. It is a very special day. This is CAROS first Black History Month, and we want to acknowledge the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation in making this event possible. Thanks to its National Anti-Racism Fund, which supports organizations to combat racism, promote events and education, and build a more anti-racist society. So with the team of Black History Month being Black Resistance this year, we wanted to highlight ways that Black and Indigenous activists and communities, as well as people of Afro-descent and from the diaspora have expressed and celebrated resistance in the past, the present and what it means for the future. And we really hope that this roundtable generates discussions on how we can all together and globally advance the work of anti-racism, anti-Black racism. So we hope to have a very rich discussion and if you have any questions during the event, please feel free to put them in the chat and we'll collect them for the speakers at the end of the event. We are also very grateful to have with us today Adele Halliday, who will be moderating this panel discussion. Adele is the anti-racism and equity lead staff at the National Office of the United Church of Canada. She's an experienced anti-racism educator, workshop leader, and award-winning writer. Adele has been involved in anti-racism work with the churches in Canada and beyond for many years. She's currently staffed resource to the United Church anti-racism command table and has been the moderator for the World Council of Churches Adversary Group on Overcame Racism, Racial Discrimination and xenophobia. And she holds a Master of Education as well as a Master of Theological Studies. She's currently studying towards a Doctor of Education. So thank you again very much Adele for being with us today and over to you. And thank you Radia for the introduction and welcome everyone to today's panel conversation on voices of resistance. It's really good that you are here. So I'll be moderating today's panel discussion. So I'm going to introduce our panelists who have some exciting conversations lined up for us today. And as we go as noted, please feel free to add your questions into the chat and we will weave those into the conversation. The format for today's panel discussion will be that we will explore three different themes and each theme has a question that each panelist will respond to. And so we'll hear from all of our panelists and then we'll hear some spoken word and some poetry. It's going to be a fantastic gathering. So our first question today under the first theme is what has resistance looked like in the past for your community. And I'm going to invite each of our panelists to share responses to those. I'll introduce the panelists one by one as they begin to as they begin to speak. So the question again is what has resistance looked like in the past for your community and the invitation for the panelists will be to share a story from your community that shows the impact of colonization on community and land or that shows the resistance of your people. So we'll hear from all of our panelists. The first person we'll hear from is Ed, and Ed was introduced previously so we'll look forward to hearing from Ed. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. So for our community again, I want to say, you know, I understand it's Black History Month and June is Aboriginal History Month, and I think it's very important that we acknowledge that the contributions of Black people in Canada and you know, made to this amazing conflict. So as I'll go to the question here, so for our first nation that's been involved in three huge major land claims settlements of lands that were taken, expropriated lands that were taken, one was taken from by the military, used for a race range. One of our, one of the other one was one of the largest land claims in Canada where they expropriated many, many, many acres of land just through the city of Thunder Bay up through Kekebeke Falls, etc. Central. So we were pushed into these lands and moved over to a mountainish swampish area on the first nation. Many of these, where we were before, we had even a cemetery. The cemetery was dug up and these bodies were moved over to what is known as for the first nation today. Sadly, they were prepared for these lands to be moved to Canada. For weeks and months, these coffins were tossed to the sides of the road and bodies kind of lay on the side and tell them to decide where they want to put it and find it. These are things that our community and communities go through and went through in the past, but we're a strong, resilient people and we overcome many, many issues. So that's my thing. Thank you, Ed. And thanks for reminding us of being a strong and resilient people. So thank you for that, Ed. The next panelist we'll hear from is RUVA. And I'll introduce RUVA. This is RUVA. So RUVA is a black activist whose work is rooted in faith based social justice. She has an academic background in women's gender and sexuality studies and political science. She has been a grassroots activist and organizer for over a decade, as well as worked in policy with a vision towards liberation. She's passionate about the intersections of oppression and how they can serve as a basis for solidarity among marginalized communities. She served as a community relations officer for Black Lives Matter Sudbury, where she built a community solidarity coalition. And she's currently the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Coordinator for the Congolese on the Notre Dame Visitation Province. So welcome, RUVA. We are glad you're here. And I will ask you the same question. So what has resistance looked like in the past for your community? Thank you so much, Adele. Yeah, so I am giving it a little bit of history. So I am from Zimbabwe and that's where I grew up when I was born. And that's where my kind of community's history of resistance begins. So Zimbabwe was for a long time a colony of Britain. And then once it became an independent country, it was still very much run within its government by those white settler colonialists who had moved there. And in the 60s, there was a war of independence that ended up, that was able to free that and create. There was it like it was a grassroots kind of guerrilla warfare, war of independence that created an independent nation of Zimbabwe. And that happened even during my parents' lifetime. And that is a story of resistance that has brought me to where I am today. And I always think that that historical context is important for who I've become. And so as I carried that and really internalized it into my own activism, I became an activist starting pretty early on. And most recently I've worked with Black Lives Matter Sudbury for a number of years, beginning in 2020, where we built a movement for Black liberation in Northern Ontario in communities that I think often people don't think about as having Black history, but they have for decades. And for us that resistance has been through art very often. So we have been able to create murals and arts programs for youth and an actual Black arts festival for the first time in Northern Ontario this past year, as well as every year, an educational Black History Month virtual museum and a conference. And these actions, including these actions plus protests that we did throughout the years, highlighting issues of police violence and other issues that have really affected the Black community in Sudbury, but in North America as a whole have really showed the need for this kind of activism and this kind of resistance. And our resistance really centers around Black joy, because for us it is both about, you know, informing ourselves and our greater communities about Black history, specifically Northern Ontario for us in those instances because that's where we are based, but in Canada in general, but also connecting those struggles, you know, as like similar to my story that I told is those, all of the struggles I think of the Black diaspora are really connected and that shows in our activism when we center art and culture and Black joy and that's I think the locus for me of where that activism comes from and where that resistance has come from. And like Adele said, that led to creating a solidarity movement within Greater Sudbury of many different social issues. So from housing and poverty and climate activism together with Black Lives Matter, we were able to organize around elections in the past year. And for me, I think that is the core of resistance and Black resistance is that it does like center around the issues that affect us the community, but we are always stronger when we work in solidarity and when we work as many different people together, which is why I think that is, that's one of the major parts of this, not only past resistance, but the future of resistance movements for us. Thank you. Thank you, Riva. Thank you for grounding us in your history, the history of reminder of Zimbabwe and Brutes and the struggle for independence and how the past connects to the present, your current activism through art and Black joy and solidarity movements so thank you very much for that. Just a reminder for everyone who's here that if you have questions, please feel free to add them to the chat at any time and we will add feed those to the panelists. Our next panel speaker, it will be Patrick. This is Patrick Cabella, and Patrick was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Patrick is a Congolese Canadian award winning documentary producer who is currently based in Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. In his films, Patrick has earned a reputation for creating stories, which mainly focuses on the Congolese political and sorry Congolese colonial and political history and pan African historical figures. His six short documentary films and two full length features have screened collectively in over 40 festivals across the globe, including one audience choice award for Congo a political tragedy, and also getting nominated for the UNESCO Flemish commissioned African documentary of 2020 for his latest film from the East to the Moomba. In 2021, he mentored the inaugural BIPOC so Black Indigenous people of color creator program with the digit digit 60 festival. And he also worked as a line producer for the Being Black in Canada series in the Ottawa cohort between 2021 and 2022. In the future, Patrick plans to write and produce a pan African history series, which will aim to highlight pan African leaders, such as Thomas and Canada, Steve Bico and more. So welcome Patrick, we're delighted we're here, and you're here and we'll ask you the same question that we're asking so far, which is, what has resistance looked like in the past for your community. Thank you, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate the invitation to be here. And all that I was listening to you talk about my bio I'm like no that's not me. Thanks so much actually I really really appreciate that colonization took a lot from from our people actually. And there's a lot of there's a lot of ways today that we're resisting resistance comes in a lot of a lot of form. And today I actually want to focus on something small, which a lot of people might actually understand in terms of how our people our communities across the Western world basically fighting back and that's here. The workplace has always expected us to westernize our hair to have a specific way and that's been to the detriment of our health, physically and mentally physically in terms of the chemicals that we've had to put in and stuff like this, and we complied for a long time. And that's the effect of colonization we complied for a long time, whether it was here in in the Western world, or in in our lands in Africa, and for a lot of Africans it will tell you that we grew up where they will tell us to cut our hair specific way you had to look at specific proper Western way ways and but now there's a pushback I find that you see that a lot of pushback to reclaim and be proud of our natural hair. And I find that as a resistance and I with with movement across the Western world of black people of all gender, always just on a politically embracing their natural hair. So I think that's a small meaningful small but it's a it's a meaningful resistance currently taking place within our communities. So yeah so just for small something as small as hair, you know shows shows how it's empowering us to reclaim the narrative that they told us that only straight hair was beautiful or you had to do this so you had to be just key and stuff like that so I'm starting to realize that there's a lot of reclaiming, and we are unapologetically doing it and just saying that you know what this is who we are. Take us accept us as we are, whether I have my braids, or my nappy hair. This is who I am and you will accept me at the same table as you so I think I'm very happy to see the resistance happening in our communities right now on something as meaningless or whatever but it's something as small as hair. That's great thanks Patrick for reminding us of hair and the resistance that can happen through here and reclaiming the conversation about nappy hair. I love it to this great so thank you very much for that Patrick. The last panelist will hear for this theme. This particular theme question is Joanne, Joanne Rachel. Who is the advocacy coordinator for the South Sudan Council of Churches and the South Sudan Council of Churches is a long term ecumenical and chiro's partner in South Sudan. She is the chairman of courage partner in the women peace and security program and an active partner in the gender conflict and climate program. And Rachel works to analyze peace processes, in particular the revitalized agreement on the resolution of conflict in South Sudan, while also informing policies and decision making of the church and the government. She is engaged in contextualizing and implementing the women peace and security agenda in South Sudan and the Great Lakes region of Africa, and continues to advocate for the inclusion of women and youth in peace building governance and climate change. So, welcome Joanne. Welcome, Rachel. Rachel, are you here. Yes, I'm here. I don't know if you can, if you can see me and hear me. Sorry, my room is a bit dark. So, it's about how we resist colonization and how decolonization is happening. Liberation movements in my country, we've been fighting a number of people, the British, the Egyptians and the Arabs. So it has been really hard for us to fight all these people and you can see the mix of cultures, but we're doing this through naming our children without African names. And we want to go do away with foreign names that come to confuse us and make us feel like our names, I do not have meaning, or do not have value. So through naming our children with African names, we are resisting the colonization. We're also changing the language we use towards each other. You know, the language that time with the colonialists, they would say you're less than you're a slave if you have a black skin, you're a slave. So we have to change that language that we use towards one another. And we also have free movement through borders. You know, with colonization can separation through boundaries and borders. So having free movement towards each other, that we remember that we are brothers and sisters is a way that we are resisting colonization. I had to share some words from someone called Ijoma. She's a poet. Just a few words. She says, I lost cultures. I lost a whole language. I lost it all in the fire that is colonization. So I will not apologize for owning every piece of me. They could not take, break or claim as theirs. So the fight still continues. Our minds are washed with a lot of information that is not true. But we're still trying to fight by making sure that our cultures are still existent. So that's what I can say about how we're resisting. Thank you. Thank you, Rachel for reminding us of the importance of resistance through names and language and freedom of movement. So so far we've heard from four speakers, four panelists, Ed, Roova, Patrick and Rachel, responding to the question of what has resistance looked like in the past for your community. And we've heard of the kind of naming of being a strong and resilient people. We've heard of the importance of resistance through hair, resisting through art and culture resisting through names and language and freedom of movement as some examples of the way in which people are resisting in their own communities and own contents. So thank you, all of you for for that. So here, spoken word, and spoke this spoken word is going to be offered by Davisha Francis. So please allow me to introduce Davisha and then she will offer her spoken word. So Davisha Francis is 22 and is passionate about neuroscience and linguistics. She is committed to use her voice to lift up others address systemic injustices and spread love. She has spent her studies in England, which ignited her love for travel. Her love for community shows up in her volunteer roles as the chair of the St Andrews United churches transition committee, and as a communications director for mirror up how it also works as a contingent labor analyst at a global consulting firm. And you are welcome to explore more of her spoken word at Davisha underscore speaks on Instagram. So, welcome, Davisha. Hello, thank you Adele for the intro. Good afternoon, everybody. I will be sharing a poem called so I ask you, and I'll just go ahead and jump right in. I wonder why you shoot first and ask questions later. Why you avoid questions and don't assume any blame why you shoot to kill when you could stop them with one bullet. Two if you're really scared three if you're just a racist who doesn't care how am I not supposed to react when there's a gun in my face but you choose to shoot the black flesh of people who just want to live today. Go home to your families unharmed unashamed when you brought another member of our resilient community down for what personal gain there are only so many bullets our bodies can take before we scatter the streets but you won't even let us protest in peace isn't it horrible. That I hope my children don't come out too dark skin doesn't it sad that I cry for people I never once met isn't it devastating that I can turn off the news when I'm too overwhelmed when my tears have dried in my head aches while mothers, wives, children, brothers, sisters, friends and communities waited hours for a man who wasn't coming home who you took from their home I'm sure their throats burn when they think of your face and your brutality is the last thing he saw in his gaze and I don't think it's enough that you have to live with what you've done, because there is not enough remorse in your eyes to convince me you don't believe you haven't already won 2005. 3.5 million guns in America alone not including corrupt cops or unregistered weapons 2006 10177 gun related deaths believing poor firearm control doesn't increase fatal violence as such a myth 2007. 90 firearms per 100 people revolvers shotguns rifles 270 million guns and millions of lives to follow I'm dangerous because I'm black. And you're dangerous because of the badge on your chest or simply the whiteness of your flesh but one of us gets to shoot, kill and walk away free and the other is left to bleed I'm you always aim to kill us. We are trained to do and say the right things and still you want to kill us we are allowed to live and be free and happy and for that you want to kill us who gave you the right to steal someone else's life when your life is surely not more valuable than mine I've seen felt an experience more in my 22 years than you have in your whole life that you continue to disregard all of my reasons to live. I'm asking officer white man white woman if you were me, you stand staring down the barrel of my gun if I shot to kill with no remorse. Though you are not guilty unarmed maybe a little frustrated and a lot bit scared would you still not care. When your mother cries out in pain when your children grow up with one less parent when your community is looking for the one to blame wouldn't it break your heart that I could get away with everything under the sun even murder, even black, or simply because I wore a badge on my chest, sleeve, or shoulder. Thank you. Thank you, Divisha for that powerful spoken word I wonder if we might just have a moment of silence we can absorb. All that was named. Thank you once again, Divisha for that powerful sharing. Friends we are going to continue with our panel conversation. We've explored one theme so far. What has resistance looked like in the past for your community and heard from our four panel speaker or final speakers. The next question that we're going to explore is what does resistance look like for you in your work. And I mean more specifically we we we have a sense that colonization and its impacts continue in our time so the invitation for the panelists is to explore well how do you and your community decolonize what mediums do you use how do you resist. So again we'll hear from each of our four panelists they've already been introduced so we won't introduce them once again we'll just move into the questions for the conversation so Rachel. So depending if we can hear from you first please around what does resistance look like for you in your work. Okay, as Steve Bico said, the most important we point in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. So we have been oppressed through our minds and we still feel like we are less than as black people or African people people. Rachel is having some technical difficulties that is coming in and out so we'll come back to Rachel in a moment. Hopefully the internet will be reconnected so that we can hear her insights. In the meantime, let's move to RUVA to hear from RUVA responding to that same question will come back to Rachel later on. But RUVA the question again is what does resistance look like for you in your work. Thank you so much. I think resistance in my work has for me really been highlighted by the idea that it's not only the work itself but it's how that work is done. I think that's really resonated with me. I think especially having done activism and organizing and working in nonprofits. I think that can very much permeate how we work is an idea of scarcity. And I think for me that has been a really a liberating factor has been trying to move beyond that, because I think most of us here can probably identify with the idea of feeling like there isn't enough you know there isn't enough funding or time or people to get the things done that we need to do. And I think having starting to work from a place of abundance of not thinking you know there isn't enough but thinking how can we share reshare what is there so that there is enough. It has really helped me to work. It's made me to slow down and reflect on the work that I do, which I think is so vital in this work, but it's also helped me to widen what I think is possible to make the scope smaller sometimes of what I am doing by bringing in community by asking for help by working more in solidarity. Because I think when we think oh I'm the one who has to do this resistance work and I'm the one who has to dismantle these structures by myself. It becomes an impossible task and I think very much the way to decolonize and liberate that mindset is to understand it as there is enough, you know, like that this work, the work of justice will happen and that there is enough to make it happen changing the question from you know how do we, how do we get more resources or how do we figure out how to work with these resources say how do we reshare and make sure that there is enough to get done what needs to happen, but also let go of the ways of working that aren't working, you know, because they because they exclude people or because they're inaccessible. So that we can bring everyone along within our movement. And those things I think have been lessons that I've learned that I really kept with me in terms of ensuring that my work is able to to decolonize and that it's able to be resistant not only in its impact, but in how I'm doing that work every day. And that's changed not only, I think the outcomes of my work I think the outcomes have been a lot stronger I think we've been able to do a lot more, but also, it's changed how I feel and how I'm able to do that work because I know burnout, especially for marginalized people for so many people and especially marginalized people. It's so easy to burn out on this work. And that expansiveness has really helped me to find rest and solidarity in those I'm working with. Thank you. Thank you, and thanks for the reminder to reframe the question is about how we go about the work, challenging notions of scarcity of scarcity and working with abundance, and that there is enough to do the work of justice so thank you very much for that I'm fine so we'll go back to Rachel to hear a few more of her insights, we were able to hear a little bit around the decolonizing the mind. So let's go back to Rachel and hear more of her responses to what does resistance look like for for her in her work so Rachel welcome back please. Okay, I won't put the video on I think it's one of the things that's making me go off. So I was sharing about the education of the mind, and having peer to peer conversations with young people about our cultures. And then second is documentation of oral history. You know, the white people came and decided that they have discovered certain things because they saw them. So, and they consider the oral history as not history because it's not written so being able to document the things that our parents or the parents of our parents tell us is something very powerful. I do that, and encourage the other young people to do that when we go for conflict resolution we listen to them on how they locally resolve conflicts, I think that's a way of resisting colonization. And also in my work I advocate for museums. So we preserve the work of our ancestors. We have to make sure that those that come after us can see what happened what, how can we solve issues how did those that can be for us to do this so I think that's very important and doing this every day and advocating for it every day brings me so much joy. And in a way it reminds my brothers and sisters that we did not start with slavery as I mentioned before we had a rich history that was not written and if we documented, then at least we will see it and then those that come after us will see it. So that's how I do it and it brings me so much joy and I'm happy to share with everyone else. Thank you for sharing Rachel and we're so glad we could hear your insights, reminding us about the importance of decolonizing the mind and documenting oral histories and education and at the preservation of that in museum so that generations that come afterwards can also know what has happened. So thank you. Next on our panel, we will hear from Ed, and Ed is again responding to the same question. What does resistance look like for you in your work and the invitation for anyone if you have any questions please feel free to add them to the chat at any time. So Ed, we are looking forward to hearing from you. Alright, so first I got to remember that first nations create their own rules and laws as they are a separate nation from Canada basically. And, you know, we've created power we've got back to power, etc. But you have to remember back in 1921. We created a rule that first nations were not allowed to gather either for feasts for dancing, and they permitted us not to not to not to do these things. In 1925, they created the past system that not allowed us to leave our first nations that we were stuck in our first nations and we couldn't we couldn't leave without without the federal government's permission or the Indian agents permission. And as well you remember 1950s for $5, you too could you too could own your own native boy or native girl so for five bucks a lot of people bought first nation people, and we lost that culture we lost our rights we lost our language. It's funny somebody talked about hair earlier, but you can tell I have none. So that defines what native people are. And it's kind of sad. I hear this. I heard this at a job that I recently had, where I was the quote, whitest Indian is ever known, because I don't have the long hair. I don't speak like, you know, the native people that are out there, I guess. I don't fish. I don't hunt. So that's, I guess that creates who I am. And it's kind of the hair kind of things I want to bring back that. But you know we are, we lost our culture we lost our rights but we're slowly moving forward, and getting those that culture that education back. United Nations created the declaration of rights and religious people. The first person to sign that declaration of United Nations was Barack Obama in the United States. The last person that that sign that was Canada. And that shows you how far back we still are as a nation or as kind of that, that, that we need to, you know, learn from our mistakes kind of thing. They really created the truth and reconciliation we all know, we all know about the residential schools and we won't get into that too much. And, you know, we got calls to action and number 92 of that is trying to convince corporate corporate Canada to have stuff like this right, and that's where I come into place. And I know about what my workplace looks like. They've hired a First Nation and Aboriginal and Indigenous, a native and a shnaabic person to do a native shnaabic Aboriginal job. And my job is to create that that culture that and to explain to people who we are what we do kind of thing right so so when you go into communities, you understand what smudges you understand how to how to approach an elder, you know, I hold right now I nobody can see this but I hold my, my, my back on my hand as we speak to back was a strong medicine for the First Nations, and we give that to we give that to our elders and to chiefs and people we talk to. So in work. I see it. I see it's, it's, it's, it's starting to get a little better. I see that that the hired like I said a hired a First Nation person do a First Nation job. And people are actually listening you know I have my smudge bowl in my office, I have my, my, my door open to any interpretation or any questions so, so I think it's slowly starting to change and that's what I see at work so thank you. Thank you Ed for reminding us again of history of past systems of not being allowed to gather and the slow but steady change and recognizing that we still have a very long way to go so thank you for that Ed. The last speaker will hear for on this section of the panel is Patrick. So Patrick over to you please for responding to the question what does resistance look like for you in your work. Thank you, thank you. First, I want to say thank you to Rachel for evoking Steve Bantubico is one of my African resistant movement hero if you want to put it that way. And so thank you for that. It was great to hear his name. And as as Patricio Moomba also said, it is found letter before he was killed he wrote a letter to his wife. And in it he had two lines which I really love one of the lines says history will have it say, and then about two lines later he says, Africa will write its own history. And eventually says Africa is a proper story. So Africa right it's on history, and due to colonization the humanity of black people African people as you know it's always been hidden behind stereotypes myth, and all these bad things you know like for example, from the Congo, one of the first books is the heart of the dog, heart of darkness, right it's just this, this bad place where white people shouldn't venture in because you know, there's cannibalism and stuff like that. So black voices have always been silenced, only allowed to, I guess, talk to like again like Rachel said, talk by when it's validated by an expert or like the Westerners. Like in 1885. It's interesting Ed brought up 1885 in 1885 in Africa that's the year which is called Berlin Conference or the carving of Africa. Right so, so you had expert like politicians bureaucrat and priests around the western world, who were telling our stories or who had this bad narrative of who we were. And I think resistance for me in my work is telling our story, telling our story and representing our history and culture with respect with understanding with dignity, and giving our voices its humanity back. I work a lot with with with black actors and creators in a committee and we all working toward one common goal and that common goal is resistance. Basically, resistance for us to tell our own stories, which we've been erased from from history. So for me, I think it's it's as artists and as filmmakers and community leaders, I feel that we kind of having to understand that we have potential for political activism in our work. So, in my work what I try to do is to defend our heritage or culture, a traditional rights, speaking of our history, so that we can unapologetically tell our stories and be true to to history. So that future generation will be part of our history. So really resistance for me just telling our stories in like Patricio Mombas said, Africa, when they have it safe. So it's just the more we tell our stories, we resist we we break those stereotypes that were created by experts who don't know our culture. Again, like Rachel mentioned like our story didn't start in 1895 or in 1462 when the Portuguese first got to the continent. It started before that we have we know we had amazing kingdoms and stuff like this all of Africa and the great Kingdom of the Congo of Zimbabwe. So I think, I think if we write those stories if we reclaim that. That's my way of fighting this is just by writing our stories, telling people that we also are people with, you know with humanity. And, yeah, that's the way I'm trying to fight that so that we, the future generation can be proud of our stories, and also see themselves with, yeah, with practice and just say you know what this is, people did this or people did that too and people get the narrative that were written by the Europeans or anybody else that's never been there. We're not the heart of darkness. We are actually a place of a lot of got kings and queens and stuff like that which actually had been there for for for centuries and stuff and for millenials actually so just be proud of our of writing our stories. Thank you, Patrick, again for lifting up the names of Steve Biko and Patrick LaMumba, and reminding us of the importance of telling our stories and challenging the notion of the black boys being child being silenced and the creative ways that you're doing that through filmmaking so thank you very much. So we've heard from our four speakers so far around this question of what does resistance look like for you in your own work. We're going to cycle back to each of the panelists with a couple follow up questions so one question for everyone is going to be what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. LaMumba will hear from everyone around that question around specifically around youth. And then we'll also hear just a follow up question for everyone to just go a little deeper into some of the work and a little bit of the sharing that they've talked about. So we'll go in reverse order this time we'll hear from Patrick first so Patrick we'd love to hear from you around that first question. What is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. One of the questions specifically because you talked a lot about storytelling, and you have an amazing outlet for that as a filmmaker for people who are not filmmakers. What would you name for people in terms of ways in which they can continue to tell their own stories or challenge the notion of black voices being silenced so some thoughts around both of those please. I don't actually it's interesting. You bring this question. It's funny just this past weekend I was on the panel with black actors. And, and we're asking how they're challenging. Oh, what are they doing to change stuff. And one thing I realized and they were all saying that unapologetically not taking stereotypical stereotypical casted roles anymore. Right, and this is how black actors are fighting in, in, in my industry, I guess in filmmaking, for example, they're saying no I came here to play Macbeth I don't want to play the cook. Right, so I think they realize that you know what this, this could be detriment to my portfolio, but I'll, I'll stick with it and fight this stereotype and stuff so I see a lot of people refusing to play those roles, because of what they're starting to see around and that a black person can also be a lead actor a black person can also be the, for example the last thing I was working on. It was done by a black woman black cast first black show created in Ottawa. And there was so much pride in this in that where we sing roles now of people that we know we know black doctors we know black lawyers and stuff like that. And we don't have to just be the top cast so I think that the youth in the community are starting to understand that they don't have to play that game anymore. And so it's funny for me, I'm in my early 40s so working with people in their 20s, seeing that for some of us we had to play the game. To play the game to to fit in or to get another gig or to to be called again, where they're like you know what, I don't want to play this game. I'm not here for this I went to film school so respect me as an equal and respect me as a peer so that's, that's what I love seeing from the youth right now and I'm, I'm, I'm in all of them actually. So that's, that's beautiful to see. The second question. Do you mind just saying it again. Yes, absolutely. It's the question is around telling our stories and you have a very creative outlet around that as a filmmaker. So for people who are not filmmakers, what are some ways in which they might be able to tell stories or challenge the development of black voices being silenced and so on. Before thank you again for that. Before today got stories we need to learn about our stories. Right. This is the whole knowing where we go we've gone we have to know where we're from. So you don't have to be a filmmaker you don't have to be a writer or a poet or a spoken word person to tell our stories you just have to educate yourself on who we are. We have like people like Kim Pavita, who was like the African for example, John of Arc she was 16 years old, and fought the Portuguese Catholic priest and stuff like that we're doing whatever they were doing. So that we have those stories where you, it doesn't have to come out as a film. It can just be as a conversation at a luncheon with your friends. You know, I remember one day somebody told me, oh Patrick, you know. It was, it was November 11th, November 10th. And they said to me, tomorrow, you, you must be happy because it's the day off. Your people and this yes this is a pure mind told me your people won't, if it wouldn't fight the war. And I was like, that hurts, because you know what my people fought for the Belgian colonial troops. Right so I didn't have to make a film about it just have to know about it and educate that person right there and there so I think youth have to we have to go back to the, to the library and learn about our history, whether it's Nigerian history the Congolese history. And it doesn't matter what like just the collective black history the Atlantic trade slave trade, the fact that there was, there's this black Canadian history in Canada. Right, all those we have to learn it somebody again once told me Patrick yeah you Canadian but your ancestors didn't build Canada like my ancestors and she was from I think her background was Scottish. And, and I didn't know about black Canada at that point, and I should. My black ancestors didn't build Canada, but then later I learned a lot about black Canada. I'm a man I wish I could have that conversation back so I could actually tell her about what I've learned. We don't have to educate ourselves there's nothing else you don't have to be a filmmaker, a writer, just just educate yourself that way what that way you can defend our culture correctly. Exactly sorry I just so black Nova Scotian history, absolutely we need to educate ourselves most things for that we can probably talk about it we can probably put on and say yes. My ancestors as the caveas from the Congo didn't build the con didn't build Canada, but you know what black. My black ancestry in Canada did build Canada so and today we see it in stuff like the CBC show porters, where we stand to realize that Canadian black people have been part of this history skin in black history is Canadian history. So let's not forget that and let's be proud of it and we don't have to make movies about it. Fantastic. Thank you Patrick. Thank you for sharing both boats. Youth resistance and also this broader question and running results of history education and more so thank you again. Next we'll hear from Ed. So we're all responding to this question this first question around what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community so we'll hear from you Ed around that. So the question specific to some of the things that you were talking about and you talked about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and specifically calls the call to action number 93. And, you know, talk about the importance of Canada learning from its mistakes and your own role as an indigenous person working in indigenous organization. The follow up question is, what would you say around for non indigenous peoples around their own learning and and challenging and being in solidarity. So, so those are the two questions that first went around youth resistance and the second one. What's your message to non indigenous peoples. Okay. First, a little step back a little bit here. So, growing up. My mother and my father went both went to day school was residential schools basically. My mom would get beaten if she spoke a language. So, when we were growing up. I was because she was afraid that when we went to school, we would get beaten up by by the priests and nuns as well so we never understood and we never did our culture we never did a lot of stuff. Indian stuff kind of thing right. But now what's happening is, are you the starting to understand that culture, they're under the starting to get into the beating into the powwows. They're starting to open their eyes to language of culture, you know, right behind me in my, even in my, my, my picture here I have a smudge of bowl and a smudge in our traditional medicines. Our, our youth are starting to open their eyes and get into that and start to start to get back to that culture. So, you know, with films like Indian horse. We were, we were children, and even books like seven fallen feathers that was created about the seven Aboriginal youth that were killed here in Thunder Bay. They're opening the eyes to a lot of youth and they're starting to understand that that the culture has to come back, then we have to start listening to our elders, we have to start understanding the seven grandfather teachings of our past. And I think slowly our youth are starting to get into that. Second question, sorry. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. If, if there's, if there's something that you would like to say to non-indigenous people around learning or resistance. Yeah. Okay, you know, I always say, you know, my, my joke leave my weight was always open, you know, it's as simple as just a simple talk. I sit here on this panel and I mean, oh, I'm just on the panelists here. And I want to sit with every one of you and sit for hours and hours and hours and hours, drink tea, and I'll make to make some panic. And I want to listen to your stories as well. That's where we have to do. That's what we need to do. So, for non-indigenous, non-first nation people, I think that's what we got to do. We just got to have to sit and talk. We have to learn each other's culture, our rights. We have to understand each other. And again, we talk about the seven grandfather teachings. We have to, we have to learn that and apply that to our life. And I'm going to just say, we just got to listen. We got to open our ears. We just got to have sit down has some Vatican tea and just listen to one another. So, thank you. Amazing. Thank you, Ed. Thank you very much for that reminder of listening and reclaiming reclaiming so many things language, culture, reminding us of films. Wonderful. Thank you, Ed. I'm going to hear from, from Roova. So, same question around youth. The question around youth is what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. And I'll offer you the follow-up question now I can repeat it again later, but the follow-up question and you talked a little bit about challenging scarcity and working from abundance, the reminder that there's enough for all. Practically, how do you go about that? And what would you say to other people who may want to do something similar? Thank you. I think around youth, very much like Patrick said, I'm often in awe of the youth, even though I do still consider myself one of them. And, but even especially those younger than me, to see how far they've been able to take their activism at very young ages, but I think often having to remember that that was the way that was paved for them by, you know, folks that are a little bit older and folks that are way older, and that's the same thing that will, you know, happen for them. So I think that for me, that's the impact on youth is seeing somebody else do it or, you know, fight for something emboldens them to fight for even more. And that's something that I've been very, very glad to see in many communities, but I think especially in my home community up in Sudbury, because growing up there, it was very, very isolating to be black, but not only that, but it was something that wasn't talked about or I felt like understood amongst my peers, even like adults in schools and things and seeing even kids now that are maybe 10 years younger than me, how different it is for them. Obviously there's still challenges, but they've seen they're a lot more vocal about talking about things like racism as they experienced them. And I think that's been huge is that the resistance has even just opened those conversations because I think a lot of people forget that with issues like racism, obviously there are the visible systemic effects, but the interpersonal and personal effects of systems like racism, you know, like, if you have, you know, different conversations or interactions where racism is present but you can't talk about them. You know, oftentimes young people will internalize those things and say, well, it's my fault. This is happening because they don't know or aren't allowed to talk about the larger implications of racism, but now that you are allowed to talk about those things. They can see like, oh no, no, this, this wasn't my fault. It was like, this person has, you know, racist ideas or this system is built in a way that's not built for me. It's just been so heartened and so like full of joy at being able to see young people understand those things in a way that's very liberating for them that helps them understand who they are and how the world works. And it's also a little bit saddening because then you see younger and younger people really understanding racism, and having to, you know, spend a lot of their time and energy fighting it. Yeah, it's also I think very hopeful for me the way it's affected other youth but also me as a youth because I feel I have also very much benefited from those who came before me and able to bring my kind of youthful energy into into the activism and the resistance work that I do. And the way it joins together generations, you know, as elders bring the wisdom and youth bring that energy. I think that's something that also youth really benefit from when it comes to resistance. Oh, and the second part, that question about not working working from abundance. It's a practice. I will absolutely say that I think it's one of those things that we all want to come very quickly. And for me still, I think that acknowledging that because we live within the settler colonial systems, you know, that idea of scarcity is often going to be the first thought, and that's okay to sit with that, but then to challenge that thought that first thought of oh we don't have enough. And then looking into how can we then you can look into how you can be more expansive with your resources. And there's kind, there's some kind of institutional steps that can be taken in terms of you know from my kind of profits, you know, turning to your board and saying, either, you know, because I think a lot of time you're being asked to do more with less and just be like, we have to do less with less, you know, be like, these are you know, even limiting the amount you do sometimes doesn't feel like intuitively sometimes that it's working from abundance but it is because then you can hone the things that you really do and the things that you're really good at, but also looking at, you know, the way philanthropy and grants work and changing our attitude towards competition are on things like grants of being like, what if we work together, you know, because it's, I've always found it a little bit wild that all these organizations working together, and competing for money, instead of being okay so you know this grant is best for you and we can help you with this application, and this grant is best for us, and the more we can work in solidarity, rather than this competition, that's part of it. I think is really, it really helps with that mindset of abundance and I think the last part of that is letting things take the time they take, because I think we're so inundated with, with deadlines and they become so cemented in us that we forget sometimes that nobody's going to die if we don't make that deadline, you know, and sometimes we do have to slow down and say, okay, is this, is this project or is this activism that we're doing necessary right now, or we're taking some extra time on it, actually give us the resources that we need to make it more fulsome, make it more liberatory, make it more impactful. So just kind of, and I know these things are hard because they're often institutionally placed, but I think the more people who are able to stand up and say, actually, this deadline is unrealistic is one of those things that can really help us or, you know, like, how can we reshare out this money, or how can we try this, you know, because also with scarcity we're often end up keeping things that we don't need to keep all the time because we might need it later. And if we can work from a kind of more mutual aid mindset of, you know, if we have extra now, we can give it. And then when we need extra we can trust that those in solidarity with us will be there to give us what we need. It's a very difficult exercise, especially institutionally, but I think those things can be really, really impactful. Thank you. That's great. Thanks so much for sharing how this practice and working from abundance. We'll now hear from Rachel. So responding to that same question around what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. And then Rachel, a follow up question for you. You had talked about decolonizing the mind, as well as documenting oral history, museums and so on. In terms of decolonizing the mind, I wonder if you can talk a little bit about that a bit more. Would you say to people around how to go with that process look like for you. So again, the two questions are, what is what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. So I didn't get. So sorry, the first question is, what is the impact of resistance on youth in the community. And I know you wrote something in the chat, but I wonder if you might speak that. And the second question was around calling the mind. So you had spoken about that earlier. So what would you name for people in terms of either how you go about decolonizing the mind or what you would share for others about how they might go about that. Internet challenges, but she has written a bit in the chat in terms of youth, youth resistance. So I wonder if I might share that. And as she comes back, we'll invite her to share a little bit more about decolonizing the mind. So her perspectives, she's written four points. One is love for your own land and your own people. Two is self love. Three is development and the realization that we all have solutions to make things better for us. And for it promotes the spirit of Ubuntu, I am because you are so we thank Rachel for those words and hope we will be able to hear from her again a bit later. But now we're going to hear once again from Davisha, who's going to offer a poem for us. Just as a reminder. Anyone's welcome to add some questions to the chat. Some questions have been added so far we'll respond to those shortly. But in for now we'll hear from Davisha is going to offer support. So welcome back Davisha. I'm going to share two short pieces with you and the first poem that I will share with you has not been written by me. But has rather been submitted by an 85 year old Caribbean Canadian who has a passion for sharing her community experience and her name is Doreen. I will share her poem that is called still standing. We know for sure that it started in the 15th century, and now we are here and still standing. They came for us and put us into the bellies of their sailing boats, auction us off at their devilish markets, despite that, we are still standing. May as hungry so that we begged for bread kidnapped our freedom just to make themselves feel good despite that, we are still standing. We knew better. We knew that this was not the creator's plan we knew there was a time for correction and so we are still standing. Did the Bible say sin was black. Did the Bible say good and God were white who cultivated these terrible assumptions was as a conspiracy made on the top decks of those ships, perhaps so. But with God's help, we are still standing. Like Doreen for sharing that I am so humble to to share that on her. And now I will jump into my my last piece to share with you guys and this I call pride. My black is not what I am it is who I am my black skin is not just one thing it's my beauty my excellence quick liped difficult to anger heart of a fighter skin soft as a lover my black is every tongue lashing acne scar self harm coming out still going my brown skin is all I've endured forever hidden wound scabbing over but never healing dried red feeding into brown as it becomes a part of me my flesh stunk of death until God, God's breath does life into me she and I intertwine no matter what she does your mind that is her brown skin not just her mind. When brown was the least favorite color while pink flooded staggering brightness my brown was my protector and I survive. Not in spite of because of we bathed in the sun stand out and sees my brown skin carries the weight of a life. I'll never lead memories I wish to never have prayers that kept me alive ancestors who always had to fight so I can rest. I roll my shoulders and do what's necessary so in peace, they rest knowing all of this told me to hide. But when I see her wrapped delicately in brown skin, all I can feel is pride. Thank you. Thank you, Divisha for both sharing the poem from Dorian Crick and also sharing your own, your own poetry. Again, very powerful. So thank you once again. Friends, we're going to transition to the last question for the panelists. And this question is looking forward. So this is around imagining the future and working together. So the question for our panelists are, what do you dream of seeing in the future, in terms of the elimination of anti block racism of decolonization and relationship to the land. And what steps might we take as a movement to get there. What are some innovative ways that we might continue this work in our day to day work, and in our lives. So, looking forward, those are the questions for the panelists and this time we will start with Patrick, please. Thank you, thank you. What do I dream of looking forward, I think things are changing now of course, black people have been given a chance to sit at the table. I mean, a small W. A small part of the big table, but we are getting there. And it is a good start, but it's not a long way to go. So, what I dream of is the next generation and I guess it's going to go back to all my three answers here. It's about our history, our culture, preserving our story telling our stories, being proud in it. So I just want the next generation to be in which and grow their black Canadian. So we're going to talk from Canada point of view of the black Canadian narrative. I just encourage, you know, young black Canadians to be proud of their history. So that's what I want to see I want to see us being proud of our history to look at places such as like, you know, Nova Scotia to look at places such as from an entire point of view. There's a place called Sheffield Park Black History Museum, which is a living history of the first black settlers in Ontario, specifically in the Collingwood, Owens Sound area. And that was like one of the two northern terminals for the underground railroad system. So places like that. I want black people in the future to just be proud of it. The next generation to unapologetically tell their stories, to tell the world that we've been part of this country since Matryna Costa around in 1604, you know, as the first black slave or black person in Canada. You know, I just dream of days where black Canadians will no longer be written off history books, you know, I went to high school in Hamilton, Ontario. And it's so sad to say that I find out about Harriet Tubman being in St. Catherine's for anybody that knows the distance between Hamilton and St. Catherine is about 45 minutes, maybe 30 minute drive, probably even less than that. I find that in my 30s, you know, when I went to high school in Hamilton, it was never taught, but I found out in my 30s through just reading an article one day, finding out that there's a Harriet Tubman school in St. Catherine. So I called my cousin, I'm like, Hey, you went to St. Catherine. Did you know about this? She's like, No, I didn't. We need to educate ourselves. So I dream in a future that Canadians will no longer be written off the history books because we shape this country. And our stories and narrative should reflect that. So that's, that's, that's my, my, my, my pipe dreams, if you want to put it that way, that's how I dream. I have 20 years down the road, I have twin daughters who are 12 years old. You know, when they're 30s, I want them to absolutely know the importance of black people in Canada. And because this is their Canada, you know, they don't know anything else. This is their Canada. This is our Canada for the majority of us. We've lived here or we're born here longer than anywhere else. So we need to take, to take ownership of that. My dad, again, who's 12 years old, one of them, just last week or two weeks ago, somebody said, but where are you guys from? Where are you people from? And as she said, but I'm from Ottawa. Right. And again, they're 12 years old that they were trying, the person was trying to make his shoes Congolese or her parents were Congolese or, or whatever. And I'm like, no, you need to take ownership of you as a black Canadian. This is who you are. So the future is for black Canadians to not be written off a history to not be shy to say that we shape this country to not be shy to say that yes, my ancestors built this country as well. So that's that's what I hope to see in the future. Thank you for sharing your dreams, Patrick, both for yourself and for your children. We'll hear it next from Roova. Roova, can you tell us a bit about some of your dreams, what do you dream of seeing in the future elimination of 90 block racism and more so what is your dreams. It's funny because I feel like they, my dreams are feel so simple, but also at times unachievable, because my dreams are for, you know, for black people to have what they need, you know, to spiritually, like mentally, physically, financially have what they need so they can thrive, because I feel it's like so many of us like so many marginalized people in Canada and across the world are constantly just trying to survive in so many ways, even when we have what you need mentally, you know, like mentally, emotionally, spiritually, often still just trying to survive so those that's my my dream, you know, is for people black people to have not only, you know, a sense of history, but also future here. And I think for me those dreams are also so intertwined with the fates of all different marginalized people in Canada, you know, I dream of a time in the future where, you know, like land is rematriated back to Indigenous peoples and because I feel like those, especially with Indigenous people like our fates for a liberated future are so tied together as they have been in the history of Canada so that is a big part of my dream for black people in Canada and I, you know, I dream for freedom of movement, you know, so that I can, I can see my elders in Zimbabwe, they can come see me and we can live these lives that are that are more intertwined and that, you know, that aren't, your family isn't defined by immigration status and visa status. So I dream for regularization of status for migrants so people can move more freely, you know, and I dream of an anti-carceral world where people have what they need so they are not disproportionately in jail or having, you know, getting conflicts and being, you know, injured or murdered by police and these dreams all seem, I think a lot of the time for me like a pipe dream but they're really very much, you know, a basic idea of people being able to live and live out dreams and, and, you know, do the professions they want to do and make art and music, you know, like I dream of going to the yarn store without being stared at. It's all of these things are so intertwined, you know, it's like really breaking down those, you know, our economic and like government institutions that still enshrine inequality because that's, you know, the end of it is a lot of these systems don't work, but there's not equality so it kind of builds, you know, it goes all the way to the top. But so yeah, I guess in like a long story short, those are my dreams. Thank you for sharing some of your dreams. We'll go next to hear from Ed and some of Ed's dreams so Ed what do you dream about seeing in the future in terms of the elimination of anti block racism of decolonization and relationship to the land and how do we begin to get there what steps do we take and how we continue this work and our day to day work lives, work and lives. And all I can say is, it's amazing how our culture is intertwined like that. But if I have to add to it, I dream about a time when I'm not petrified when my 25 year old daughter is walking down the street. I don't know if people heard about the Charlie Hitch incident that happened here in Thunder Bay years ago, but I shiver when my daughter's walking down the street. I dream of a time when I can, you know, I can go to the dollar store without being followed around the dollar store being followed around because the color of my skin as well right. You know, it's crazy. I dream about a time where I don't have to do this. I don't have to sit in my office and talk about Aboriginal culture and the right way and the wrong way to treat people and treat Aboriginals treating even treat black people right. I want to be out of my job. I want to work my way out of this job. That's what I dream about. I dream about where, you know, my son. There's a chance to show that he's the right person for that job, not because of color of his skin or where he's from or he's the chief's cousin or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I want that dream to be that he is a hard worker. I dream about that the youth in our community, they're having a hard time in all communities. It's sad, but sometimes drugs and alcohol are the only solution. I dream about a time where they're able to talk and able to speak to, I don't care if it's an Aboriginal elder or a priest or whoever that they could actually come to somebody and say, here's my problems, here's where I'm feeling hurt. That's my dreams. And again, my dream is to grow some hair as well. Thank you. Thank you, Ed. Thank you for sharing your dreams. So we've heard dreams from from Ed and from Roova and from Patrick and Rachel also has dreams Rachel is having internet challenges and is not able to speak to them but has written them into the chat. And I offer what she has written. So Rachel shares that her dreams are number one for any change to happen for any change to happen and be sustainable. It should be structural and institutionalized that decolonization must pay attention to the education system by teaching the truth about African history and technologies that existed way before colonization. And number two that oral traditions and wisdom of African people must be documented and disseminated. And number three that we also need to utilize our own resources in order to stop depending on tide aid. So thank you, Rachel for those thoughts and insights. So with that, we are now going to shift to any questions that some of you may have. And some of you have been writing in the chat throughout this conversation so we will offer these back to the panelists to explore and if there are additional questions that you would like. Please continue to add them into the chat so the first question is actually just specifically for Roova and then the rest will be for everyone. So the first question for you Roova is, is there a website or more information on programs that you mentioned so things like the virtual Black History Month Museum and the festival. So Roova if you're able to respond to that one please. Yes. Yes, so BLM Sudbury.ca. And I can put that in the chat too is the website for Black Lives Matter Sudbury. And there you can find all the information including Black Futures Month, which is the theme of this year's kind of activities for Black History Month, starting on later this week, February 24. So you can sign up this year, it will be hybrid. So if you're in the area, there'll be some in person events too, but there will be online panels and educational events. In addition to that, the past year's panels and educational events where you might see somebody on the screen are also available on the website and there's also a link to the Museum of Black History, which is just wonderful. I'm so in awe of all the people who worked on that. But yes, BLM Sudbury.ca has all that information, and they're also on Instagram and Facebook as well as BLM Sudbury where you can find more of that work. Thank you Roova. So a website where people can go for more information. So we've heard that so that's wonderful. Thank you very much. Next, what is for everybody? This is more of a comment, but wonder if you might respond to the comment by adding additional insights. So the comment in the chat is noting that Canada's economy today exploits African mineral resources through its role in mining. And the Toronto Stock Exchange has several Canada-based mining companies that enrich themselves and their investors by exploiting African resources. So I wondered if any of you wanted to comment on that. I'll take it on. I don't know what the question exactly is, but I do know that Canada has been one of the countries sorry to use this word that's been raping the Congo and pillaging the Congo's minerals. And it's funny because on one hand we always look at the colonizers as Britain and France, and we forget Canada. And I don't think I have a solution for anything like this, but we as Congolese people are actually tired of that. We're tired of knocking on, I've been on the hill for the past, and I'm not even exaggerating. I think for the past almost 20 years where we've had marches and whatnot sit-ins and when Harper was still Prime Minister to now. And we're not been heard out of voices are not been heard because of course it's bringing a lot of money to Canada. I remember I think with the Colton, for example, Canada, this is a couple of years ago, about 2015 or so Canada made about $4 billion in mining in one year from the Congo alone. We've tried telling the government but again they don't care because of course it's Africans and our voices are not that big. And I think in the future it takes people like myself, who are Canadian Congolese, who can stand in front of my peer Canadians and say hey, stop doing this to my other people in the Congo. But even then they're not listening. So I, again, I don't remember what the question was but I just wanted to bring it up just because I know that mining, Canadian mining, cooperation in the Congo are absolutely destroying the Congolese people. And you talk about blood diamonds while Canada has a lot of blood on on the Congolese minerals and I think it's about time we as Canadians start denouncing our government for it. Great. Thank you, Patrick. I'll keep adding more questions and oh sorry, please. Oh sorry so because I wanted to add a little bit on to this because I think this is one of those things where education is so important because like Patrick has says I think these are things that often Canadians don't know about and are very important for a lot of conversations we're talking, including when people talk about, you know, people coming to Canada either as immigrants or as refugees, and people ask you know why does Canada need to help these people and it's because well oftentimes the, the very circumstances that they are escaping or leaving are caused by, you know, the, the, the called the fallout from Canadian mining operations, you know, and we talk about these things you know are also tied into climate in Canada and climate action, because the countries that are very much facing the, the consequences of climate change are the ones that are doing the least and the countries like Canada who are, you know, contributing in an outsized way are the ones who are most able to mitigate the effects. And so I think centralizing these conversations is important especially during something like Black History Month, because people often won't see the connections between Black History Month and things like climate or mining. But these things are very much specifically intertwined and how that kind of environmental racism ties into environmental racism here in Canada, and how it ties into different struggles, you know, environmental of Indigenous land claims here in Canada because a lot of the times it's, if not those same mining companies who are, you know, violating Indigenous rights in Canada that are violating, you know, rights in Africa, but or companies that are very closely tied together and I think these things both are something saddening to hear how big and complex these systems are, but also it gives us a chance to understand why it's so important that all of our different, all of our different sectors are working together on these issues as big as they may be. Thank you, Ruva. And in the chat there's now a link to that part of the Cairo's website that talks about environmental racism and making corporations accountable so we can explore those, explore that further. It further deepens the conversation that we are having at the moment. So again, the next question is for anyone who would like to respond. And this question is, how do you think that social media or technology in general for that matter has helped or hindered the advancement of your culture or race when it comes to anti-racism. So that's for anyone who would like to respond. Yes, please, Ed. First, I guess one is, we've all heard it now, the whole Canada was, it was sung just days ago, that they tweaked the song, which in a positive way. I think social media has really helped that message to come out. It helped First Nation people, for example, with the finding of residential school buried children. But looking at another way, we have these, you know, keyboard warriors that are going out and recording that drunk Indian. And this is how we are. And it's the same as, you know, I watch it on social media, they record, you know, the negativity. And that's what kind of sticks in everybody's mind. Sadly, the plot of things that our cultures and our people put out there are kind of pushed out to the side and yeah, okay, we did that. So, you know, social media could be a positive enemy. Thank you, Ed. River Patrick, would you like to respond to this question? I think for, for me, it was, we definitely saw the impact, especially during 2020 and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. It's so unfortunate because things like, well, if, you know, the video of police killings hadn't been circulated through social media, I don't know if there would have been that much of an impact or a movement through these types of things. So I think when we are, when we are given more space and ways to connect, you know, across, you know, countries and borders across provinces in the country, we are able to better organize, we are able to better understand what's going on and to improve what's going on because things like police brutality people have been talking about for decades and decades, you know, and until people were able to see the videos. A lot of the time, unfortunately, we weren't believed or people weren't caring, but social media has really allowed voices to, to be amplified. And that, like Ed said, I think it also allowed a lot of hate to be amplified, unfortunately, and it's allowed a lot of people to organize, you know, against things like anti racism, but I think overall, because of the, it allows us to connect. And that is really what about social media has furthered these movements, especially through, you know, the pandemic, and allow people to connect even when we couldn't connect physically. I think for me, social media. It's a lot to do. I'm old enough to remember, for example, running a king, not that I was old enough to understand how it was going on but I'm old enough I was 12 years old or something when that happened. It's just one camera, and probably in America in California, and the right that happened in the early right for those that were old enough to remember what 2020 did for me personally, and just to give a little background of my, my childhood I grew up in, in South Africa, even though I set up Congolese, I was born in Congo, but I'm actually a Muzanese boy. So the South African and so River, I mean River said that just for you actually, since using my word. So I did see Nelson Mandela coming out of prison, for example, I saw the whole movement and the fight and the, the, the whole liberation movement that was happening at the time. And I'd never felt that again, until the summer 2020. And at this point, it's this was like 30 years later. And I just, I felt a movement where I could see, for example, John Boyega in London crying his eyes out. And me realizing that not me realizing I knew that but I just knew that you know what, black Brits are also going to the same thing. You know, and then you see the, the, the French. Born years or suburbs, and what the French people would were doing burning cars and stuff like this is because you know the French and Arab kids. I'm like, Oh my God, this is a collective thing, right the Americans. The Canadians also started speaking out saying, Oh my God, we're hurting too. We're hurting and that was social media showing us that we are all in this collective thing which is against, against racism and racism for for all of us. And there was such a, there was such a unity that came within marginalized people. I still have goosebumps actually here in Ottawa went down for the March. And there was somebody who had a thing saying protect black and indigenous women. Right. And it was like, and it felt like we give us a voice give us a voice to talk so I will talk about the good thing about social media in that aspect that it did give us a voice to, to feel that we are not. We're not crazy. You know, we're not excuse to use the word but we're not just talking out of whatever we actually this is our realities, where there's in some of us even, you know, lost I mean left workplaces and stuff again because you know it became to a point where we were realized that micro aggression that was not only happening in our workplaces, but it was happening at the stores was happening at our soccer games was happening at the airport was happening all over the western world. And all that I think it's due to social media for making us realize that we are not alone. I'll come back to Patricia Moomba he did say that one line we are not alone, you know, people from all those marginalized places feel the same pain that we do. And that was a beauty of social media now of course social media also does have is it's a bad aspect of it. And I like to be some formations and stuff like that but I think in terms of fighting for for, you know, for blackness and for our rights and stuff like that social media was a very, very good tool, especially in the summer of 2020, when we all collectively realize that we're hurting. Thank you, Patrick, Riva and Ed. We are nearing the end of our time together and you have shared so many insights so far. I just wondered if each of you might want to offer a last word. Last, last sentence challenge encouragement anything along those lines so kind of your last send out what would you like to say to people, and we can go in any order. Yes, Riva, please. Okay, I know today for any of us is the first day of lent. And I think I would encourage us to I know it's almost the end of February but extend your black history month. Maybe, you know, learn event events but you know try and now throughout this lent, you know, keeping that spirit maybe of anti racism and learning throughout the next 40 days. I'll say, going back to, as you can tell, I'm always I'm all about quoting Patrice Lumumba today. I'll call Patrice Lumumba again, and I'll do this in French so I hope the translator the interpreters can actually get this for the inner speakers. There's no compromise between our liberty and our freedom and our freedom on everything about us we should never compromise we should be proud black people should be proud indigenous people we should be proud whoever we are, and we should never, ever, ever forget that about who we are so there's no compromise between our liberty and slavery. That's the last thing I'll say. I'll say that I have, I've learned a lot of stuff here. I'm embarrassed to say that that that the black history of Canada was basically like the black or the Aboriginal history of Canada. It means me that our cultures and I said this earlier there means me that our cultures are so we're both, you know, going down the same path and went down the same path. And I'm glad that we're sitting here today, and we're talking about our cultures talking about our rights we're talking about our freedoms we're talking about, you know, who we are and what we can do as a society. I just have to say that Miigwech, thank you very much for allowing me to sit here, allow me to be part of your black history event here that that, you know, even though I'm Aboriginal and that it's worth trying to celebrate the history of black culture and black people in Canada where we're on work that I'm allowed to sit here and just listen to amazing stories. So I just want to say, you know, Miigwech, thank you very much for that. Thank you very much. Thank you to Patrick for your insights. It's been it's been a really rich conversational time. And in a moment we're going to turn it back over to Radia to share some announcements, but about Black Christian Month or black led organization that you would like to share with everybody. Please feel free to add that into the chat. I see some people are adding that already there's some suggestions for children's books websites and different ideas so please continue to add that into the chat before we go and these will be people can you can take away as resources so please feel free to add into the chat. Anything that you think would be helpful for the good as a whole. So thank you once again to our panelists. We're not quite done we're going over to Radia now for some closing announcements and thank you all for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much Adele and once again thank you for the panelists this was really a very rich powerful and really beautiful discussion so I'm very humbled and grateful to have been able to hear your stories and your experiences. I also want to thank Devisha and Doreen for sharing so beautiful and powerful words honestly it was very, very emotional, and we want to let you know that we have an art showcase. Right now that is our way to celebrate the culture and accomplishments of the black communities and its allies. So we invite youth around the world to create artwork, visual arts, performing arts, musical pieces or even written arts along the teams of black pride and black joy and allyship and solidarity and resistance. And please upload that and share that with us. We'll be very happy to share that throughout the month during our Black History Month video also that we're preparing so I'm putting the link here in the chat. We're going to ask you to please share that link and encourage people to please participate in this art showcase. A few other advocacy pieces that we want to share with you. So Carols has been conducting a letter writing campaign to help get EEL C226 on environmental racism along with two corporate accountability bills passed. So we need to keep up the pressure and we ask that you please write to your MPs today to support these bills. I'm also putting the link here in chat. And then finally, we would also ask you to help support grassroots women organizations by joining us in urging the Canadian government to increase its international assistance envelope. And here again the link is in the chat so feel free to check out those links. Send those emails and share with your networks. So yeah, as we mentioned we want to give maybe the opportunity for some people who want to share anything or some black lead organization if there's anything that you want to share feel free to raise your hand and we'll give you a few minutes to share a bit. If not then we'll pass it on to Barbara. Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you, Radia. So, yeah, so my name is Barbara. I am the director of programs at Kyros. I'm honored to do this last part of the agenda. Just the closing remarks and and thank yous. So what an inspiring event this afternoon, marking Black History Month hosted by Kyros, our first ever event. We've heard from different voices on this panel who are Black activists in their communities, people of Afro descent and from the diaspora, how they have expressed and celebrated resistance in the past, present, and what it means for the future. We've also heard what anti-colonial ways of resistance exist and how they can be utilized and expanded upon to advance the work globally of anti-Black racism. I'm hoping you found this event inspiring, educational, informative, and perhaps is still in pride in you, which is really my key takeaway. I'm feeling more powerful to be a Black person of African descent living in Canada. The celebrations will continue as we feature in art showcase with the goal of showcasing the culture and accomplishments of the Black community and its allies as alluded by Radia already. And I wanted to take the opportunity to say congratulations and well done to everybody. But this was a remarkable event. And also, I'd like to take this time to read a reflection from Aisha Francis, the executive director of Kyros who couldn't be here with us today. I simply want to acknowledge the work of the Equity Working Group in bringing our inaugural Black History Month event to fruition. While I'm not able to be there to share in the celebration and showcasing of Black brilliance and voice towards efforts and action of resistance, I'm invested in this moment and see it as a Kyros moment. The work we do at Kyros is through solidarity relationships with many people, partners, and communities here in Canada and globally. Kyros is committed to advancing our work of activism and resistance in the areas of migrant justice, ecological justice, gender rights, and Indigenous rights. We step into this opportune moment to teach, to learn, to celebrate, and to be in solidarity with Black voices of resistance. So thank you Aisha. That was her reflection for this event. So behind every successful event, there is a great team. I would like to take the opportunity on behalf of Kyros to say thank you and show our appreciation to first of all the event funder that's Canadian Race Relations Foundation, whose financial support made this event possible. And I would like to thank all members who said yes to the invitation to this plenary session. There was themed voices of resistance, a celebration of Black history and imagining futures, just for a very engaging and inspiring session. On Thursday, there's Adele Holiday, United Church of Canada, Anti-Racism and Equity Lead, Rachelle Juan, South Sudan Council of Churches, Black Lives Matter, Eva Guacuerere, Citizens for Public Justice, Intern, then Ed Collins, Fort William First Nation, Patrick Cabella, documentary film producer, and Devisia Francis for this I mean spoken word artist. And also the participants of the art showcase from around the world who have submitted and are still submitting various artworks, including visual arts, performing arts, musical pieces, written art along the themes of Black pride and joy, allyship, solidarity and resistance. Last but not least, just appreciating everyone who has participated in this inspiring events today, including Kyro staff, partners, volunteers, supporters. And without your participation, this event would not have been as enriching and as successful as it has been. So thank you everyone for joining us today. Enjoy the rest of your day and happy rest of Black History Month. Thank you so much.