“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” - Dr. Lilla Watson, Artist, Writer, Activist.

Following the overwhelming success of our first virtual event in April 2022, we are thrilled to have enriched our programming are offering a second event.

''All Nations Rise'' is a 3 hour Masterclass on not only decolonial theory, the historical evolution of colonization and systemic oppression, but an embodiment of decolonial praxis through trauma informed guided somatic practice, poetic preformances and live music. In alignment with our decolonial values, this virtual event will honour and integrate body, mind, heart and our interconnection through both history and spirit.

Decolonize Together invites you to join us for an interactive masterclass delving deeply into the history and foundations of colonization accompanied by an expert panel on envisioning the future of decolonization and mutual liberation. This workshop is designed for participants from every background and personal location to enable them to better understand their role, responsibility and tools to enact equity within the ongoing context of colonialism and the lasting legacy of systemic racism and intergenerational inequity. Our participatory curriculum is designed to empower every participant to discern tangible strategies to enact anti-racism and decolonizing practices within their own everyday work and personal lives.

Using both a systemic analysis and culturally-informed perspectives, this masterclass will guide participants into a deepened sense of understanding, compassion, and agency in dismantling harmful systems of oppression; for both the healing of every individual and the collective.

Following the event participants will receive a decolonial resource kit for further learning. The event will be recorded so participants will be able to engage with it and refer to it in perpetuity multiple times.

Who is this Workshop For?

This workshop is designed for participants from every background and personal location who desire to gain a better understand of their role,responsibility and tools to enact equity within the ongoing context of colonialism and the lasting legacy of systemic racism and intergenerational inequity. Our participatory curriculum is designed to empower participants from all backgrounds, professions to discern tangible strategies to enact anti-racism and decolonizing practices within their own everyday work and lives. This workshop is a beautiful and gentle entry for anyone who has wanting to begin a decolonial journey as well as folx who would be consider experts in the field who wish to engage with a diverse array of some of the most brillant and diverse minds in the field.

Following the event participants will receive a decolonial resource kit for further learning. The event will be recorded so participants will be able to engage with it and refer to it in perpetuity multiple times.

Presenters & Facilitators;

Lyla June, poet, singer-songwriter, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, public speaker and community organizer of Diné (Navajo),

Lisa Betty, PhD Candidate in History at Fordham University. She teaches on themes of land, labor, migration, and diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa

Jordan Chaney, Poet

Larissa Crawford, Founder of Future Ancestors, Published Indigenous and anti-racism researcher

Tia Kennedy, Founder and director of Kiinew kwe consulting

Miigwan Reine, spiritual advisor, Decolonize Together

Nikki Sanchez, Founder & director, Decolonize Together

Shayla Stonechild, Founder & Host, Matriarch Movement

The event will take place on a Zoom Video Webinar. For those who cannot attend the live event, a recordimg will be sent out to all regitrants.

Payment/ Sliding Scale:

The workshop is offered with sliding scale pricing that provides different rates for people of different access to income, stability and wealth. The following guide to determining your pricing is a resource created by Carmin Faire (they/them).

Top - $180 CAD ($138 usd): employed, paying 30% or less of income on rent, own your home, middle class or able to access intergenerational wealth, white, cis, gay and totally fine, able to eat out regularly, don’t stress about money when purchasing clothing or subscriptions. Top tier pricing will be subsidized to give scholarships to those who pricing is a barrier.

Mid - $140 CAD ($107 usd) employed, paying 50% or less of income on rent, middle class, white, straight/cis, gay but ok, able to eat out once and a while, keep a budget.

Low - $70 CAD ($53 USD): precariously or unemployed, paying more than 50% of income on rent or unhoused, BIPOC, transwomen/femmes, trans youth.

If pricing remains a barrier for you send an email to decolonial101@gmail.com letting us know your situation and we will do our best to make this event accessible to you.

Presenter Bios

Lyla June is a poet, singer-songwriter, hip-hop artist, human ecologist, public speaker and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her dynamic, multi-genre performance and speech style has invigorated and inspired audiences across the globe towards personal, collective and ecological healing. Her messages focus on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, inter-cultural healing, historical trauma and traditional land stewardship practices. She blends her undergraduate studies in human ecology at Stanford University, her graduate work in Native American Pedagogy at the University of New Mexico, and the indigenous worldview she grew up with to inform her perspectives and solutions. Her internationally acclaimed performances and speeches are conveyed through the medium of prayer, hip-hop, poetry, acoustic music and speech. Her personal goal is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper.

Lisa Betty is a PhD Candidate in History at Fordham University. She teaches on themes of land, labor, migration, and diaspora in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. Lisa has worked in the field of nonprofit advocacy serving in organizations that advocate for children, families, immigrants, and incarcerated people. As a child of a Jamaican immigrant, the development of safe-sustainable-healing spaces for Black, brown, Indigenous peoples - and interconnected ecologies and species - is another aspect of Lisa's life. See Lisa's writing on her medium platform and recent Forbes interview on whiteness and race.

Jordan Chaney is a digital-nomad lecturer, poet, speaker, writer, philanthropist, and artist residing the sunny Southwest. In 2020, Jordan was presented the “Tri-Cities Champion of Diversity” award by the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce for sustained commitment to the pursuit of diversity and inclusion in the community and the workplace. In 2018, Jordan co-founded Hope Builders “a court to community pipeline”, and with a team of dedicated community-leaders they created the Community Hope Wall, a hope-based community mural project that raises awareness of the importance of having hope, making art, and listening to the incarcerated youth-voice. In 2017, Jordan was presented with the Commitment to Diversity award by the African American Community Cultural & Educational Society for his work in the community on race, politics, and social justice. In 2014, Jordan created Urban Poets Society, a youth-leadership program that promotes public speaking, performance arts, peer-to-peer community engagement and outreach for the disadvantaged and marginalized youths in his community. He has published four books of poetry and is a guest columnist 3 publications.

From 2009 to 2022, Jordan Chaney has been mentoring youth in arts and community-leadership. His Art Dojo program is being implemented in other communities around his home state.

Larissa Crawford is a restorative circle keeper, published Indigenous and anti-racism researcher, award-winning ribbon skirt artist, and proudly passes on Métis and Jamaican ancestry to her daughter, Zyra. She is the Founder of Future Ancestors Services, a youth-led professional services social enterprise that advances equity and climate justice through lenses of ancestral accountability and anti-racism.

Under Larissa's leadership and since their launch in April 2020, the organization has mobilized +$35K in donations for anti-racist and climate justice initiatives. Larissa and her team seek to increase their clients' capacity to honour people and Planet through their minds, work, and spaces, and do so while leveraging decolonized and Indigenized approaches to 'doing business.'

In 2020-21, Larissa was honoured in Women of Influence’s Top 25 list; in Refinery Canada’s 29 Powerhouses; as York University’s Top 30 Under 30 Alumni; in HuffPost’s 26 Indigenous Influencers to Follow; and with the Pollution Probe Equity in Sustainability Award.

Tia Kennedy is an experienced speaker, consultant, and coach. She carries both Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Teachings from Oneida Nation of the Thames and Walpole Island First Nation. She has experience in various leadership roles in anti-racism, the not-for-profit sector, sales, municipal and federal government, and cultural education. She has used her entrepreneurial drive, adaptability, and vulnerability to develop authentically inclusive strategies, to make an impact in the community. In addition, she is pursuing a degree in Public Administration and Governance at Ryerson University, as well as being an active community member, volunteer, and climate activist.

Miigwan Reine I am from the Anishinaabe and the Lakota territories in the prairies east within Canada, and the United States of America. Miigwan means Feather in Ojibwe and Reine is French for Queen. My Ancestral name is Ogimaa Miigwan Ikwe, translated into English as Boss Feather Woman. Those roots stem from my fathers lineage, and Grandfathers, and Grandmothers here on Turtle Island. On Mothers side we are Metis, from Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. I have endured many obstacles throughout these 24 years of my life. Going back to intergenerational trauma within my family and our lack of identity due to the historical trauma from colonization. My healing journey, and reclaiming my identity started when I was 16. I found my way back to my roots and embraced who I am as an Indigenous Woman and the name that I carry. With many failures and accomplishments throughout these years I have been able to find the courage, strength, and faith to find my passion and light in life.

My light in life is helping others through my creativity, and devotion in educating people about situations that I have lived through, watched first hand, but was fortunate enough to overcome those adversities. I express my voice and visions through my Art, Powwow Dancing, and Mixed Martial Arts. Over the past few years I have passionately worked with the Indigenous children who are in the child welfare system.

Nikki Sanchez (she/her) is a Nawat Pipil and Irish/Scottish academic, Indigenous media maker, and environmental educator. Nikki holds a master’s degree in Indigenous Governance and is presently completing a Ph.D. with a research focus on emerging visual media technology as it relates to Indigenous ontology. Nikki is a board member of the Sierra Club BC, BC Women’s Hospital, Photographers Without Borders, and a doctoral fellow at the Center for Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. She helped to design and direct the first-ever Indigenous Storyteller edition with Telus STORYHIVE; a project to provide funding and mentorship for 30 emerging Indigenous filmmakers in BC and Alberta. Nikki was the managing editor of Spirits of the Coast, the bestselling anthology of the Salish Sea Resident Orca published by Royal BC Museum publisher. Nikki had the honor of working for the David Suzuki Foundation as their, “Queen of Green where her work centered on environmental journalism, social media, and digital media creation to provide sustainable solutions for a healthy planet, as well as content creation to bring more racial and gender inclusivity into the environmental movement. Nikki is a TEDx speaker, her presentation is entitled “Decolonization is for Everyone” has love 130k views. She has been a wilderness guide and environmental educator in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory of Clayoquot Sound for over 10 years, where she was mentored by Nuu-chah-nulth elders Tsahsiits and Qaamina Sam. She is the creator and director of “Decolonize Together” a collective of Indigenous women who offer decolonial and anti-racism workshops and curriculum creation.

Shayla Stonechild; As a Nehiyaw Iskwew (Plains Cree Womxn) from Muscowpetung First Nations, Shayla Stonechild, has always been a catalyst towards Indigenous youth and womxn unlocking their full potential. By reclaiming their voices, bodies and spirits that have been silenced and stolen throughout history. There is a shift happening in humanity right now and she believes the arts, meditation, movement, and reclaiming an Indigenous worldview is a part of amplifying that shift. Shayla is the founder of the “Matriarch Movement” a non-profit organization dedicated to amplifying Indigenous voices through story, meditation, movement and medicine. She wrote an article titled “Reclaiming Our Roots” for Jillian Harris on Canada day that received over 15,000 shares. She is currently working with “SNIWWOC” and the “Native Women’s Resource Centre of Toronto” providing free and accessible wellness workshops to BIPOC women across Canada.

Sensitivity Warning

The content of this workshop includes all topics regarding the colonial history of Turtle Island. Genocide, trans-atlantic human trafficking, mass murder, systemic abuse, removal of children and sexual abuse will be covered. We encourage participants to consider how they might create a supportive and gentle environment to learn and process in. The workshop will include somatic experiencing, breathe work and poetry structured throughout to maintain a kind and gentle space for learning. We suggest booking the rest of the evening off, practicing your favorite form of self care and reflective journaling.