The Invitation

In honour of Dalit History Month, join us for a virtual panel discussion featuring speakers from Indigenous, Black, Dalit and Palestinian communities.

Each speaker will provide insights into the struggles of the community they represent and advocacy efforts, highlighting the connections between global movements at the local level and animating historical and current day solidarity across movements.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Leena Sharma Seth, Founder of Mending the Chasm and will include a Q & A opportunity for the audience to ask questions.

Who is this event for?

This event is open to the general public and anyone who supports liberation efforts at any level. Some folks we have in mind include:

• Individuals from communities and movement work who are feeling fatigued from the ongoing oppression of marginalized communities
• Advocates interested in deepening their intersectional advocacy practices
• Those interested in understanding and supporting connections across different struggles
• Anyone seeking insights into the struggles and advocacy efforts of Indigenous, Black, Dalit, and Palestinian communities
• Those interested in historical and current solidarity across movements

Pay what you can

This event is a pay-what-you-can event. Our panelists have chosen three organizations to benefit from this event. Upon registration, you can opt for a ticket linked to one of these organizations and contribute an amount of your choice. Alternatively, you are also invited to go directly to the organizations linked below and donate directly. If you choose to do this, kindly register using the free ticket option.

Nii'kinaaganaa: Collecting rent and redistributing it to Indigenous People

UNRWA: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East

South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN): Gofundme Fundraiser for Dalit History Month

Flow of Event

• Welcome & Land Acknowledgement
• Setting the Container
• Introductions
• Understanding the Context (7 minutes per speaker)
• Panel Discussion (40 minutes)
• Audience Q & A (20 minutes)
• Closing Comments and Conclude Event

Our Community Agreements:

• Listen with curiosity and compassion.
• Double Confidentiality: No stories offered here are meant to be shared outside of this space and also, no stories shared in this space are invitations to inquire further outside of this space.
• Our impact is more important than our intent; we move with good intentions and remain committed to repairing any harm we may unintentionally cause.
• We avoid making assumptions about other people, including assumptions about their history, race, or lived experience.
• We center lived experience in equity, inclusion and anti-racism work because we recognize it as valuable insight and wisdom.

Our Panel Members

Patty Krawec, Writer, Speaker and Bringer of Ruckus

Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe/Ukrainian writer and speaker from Lac Seul First Nation. She served on the board of the Fort Erie Native Friendship Center for eight years and is a member of the Strong Water Singers. She is the cohost of the Medicine for the Resistance podcast and cofounder of the Nii'kinaaganaa Foundation, which collects funds and disperses them to Indigenous people and organizations. Her work has been published in Sojourners and Canadian Living as well as Rampant Magazine and Midnight Sun and she posts podcasts and essays with some regularity on her substack, pattykrawec.substack.com. Patty is the author of Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future and she’s working on her next book.

Patty has selected to support Nii'kinaaganaa through this event.

Gennile Thomas Smith, Founder and Executive Director, Halton Black Voices

Gennile Thomas is a Black Canadian womxn, activist, athlete, and mother, with a background in community organizing, labour studies and creative and visual merchandising. Raised in the Halton region, Gennile recognized a need for wellness and educational programs to develop essential resources for marginalized groups in her community. Fuelled by her passion for equity and social justice, Gennile founded Halton Black Voices in 2020, in an effort to develop policies and programs to address these significant needs in Halton. In her work, she aims to work inclusively with Halton residents, business groups and stakeholders to develop anti-racist programs for corporate and community groups. Gennile looks forward to deepening her connections with members of the Indigenous and 2SLGBTQQIA communities in all of her work.

Gennile has selected to support UNRWA through this event.

Chantelle Paiu, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association

Chantelle is Palestinian-Canadian, and a vocal activist for social justice. She is previous chair of the Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, and continues her dedicated work in local Palestinian advocacy within her new community in New Brunswick. With a career in the non-profit sector focused on environmental and food security issues, Chantelle is passionate about engaging youth, fostering curiosity, and tuning into compassion. She co-founded the Conscious Birth Collective, providing support for women during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, while also organizing events for women at all stages of life. Now a new mother, Chantelle finds joy in her family life while remaining committed to creating positive change in her community and beyond.

Chantelle has selected to support UNRWA through this event.

Dr. Chinniah Jangam, Author, Professor, Carleton University

Chinnaiah Jangam is an Associate Professor in the Department of History. He holds M.A. in History from the University of Hyderabad; an M. Phil. in Modern Indian History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Ph. D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He was awarded the Felix Fellowship and Harry Frank Guggenheim Dissertation Fellowship for Doctoral Studies. Jangam was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Center for Advanced Studies, New York University (2005-6), New York. His research focus is on the social and intellectual history of Dalits in modern South Asia. His first book, Dalits and the Making of Modern India, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017. In his book Jangam presents Dalit perspectives on nationalism and argues that Dalits were equal participants in the imagination and the politics of the formation of independent India. Dalits argued for the abolition of untouchability and the ending of caste inequality, with its accompanying humiliations, as preconditions for independence. Dalits imagined a nation founded on principles of justice, liberty, equality, and human dignity. These eventually became the foundational principles of the Indian Constitution drafted under the guidance of B.R. Ambedkar, a Dalit.

Chinniah has selected to support the South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network (SADAN) through this event.

Leena Sharma Seth, Principal and Founder, Mending the Chasm

Leena Sharma Seth is the founder and principal of Mending the Chasm. She is a settler who is cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied, and a child of Hindu, Punjabi (India), and Brahmin immigrants. Leena brings a set of lived and intersectional experiences to her work as a facilitator, strategist, and process designer in the equity, justice, inclusion and belonging space. Leena’s practice is grounded in the belief that equity work is sacred and that healing, wholeness, and embodiment are critical to creating a just and inclusive present and future.

With over twenty years of experience in various leadership roles, both in Canada and in Asia, Leena has worked in non-profit, consulting, education, philanthropy, and supplier diversity spaces.

Leena has a Masters in Conflict Analysis & Management from Royal Roads, achieved her Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIP) designation with the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion, has received her Pride at Work certification, completed the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation program via First Nations University, and recently completed an Embodied Social Justice Certificate with Transformative Programs (led by Rev. Angel Kyodo).

As a part of her personal commitment to this work, Leena has been working with fellow South Asians to examine tensions between the ways Brown bodies, caste-privileged bodies, and northern Indians are both privileged and impacted by systems of oppression, and also perpetuating anti-Black racism, and to work intentionally to disrupt anti-Black racism and to collectively heal from the harmful impacts of colonization, patriarchy and white supremacy.

Her work in community-building has been recognized by MP Karina Gould with the Sesquicentennial Citizenship award, the Women’s Centre of Halton - 150 Years of Exemplary Women award, and the 2021 Mayor’s Community Service Award, Burlington Chamber of Commerce.

Leena is raising two social justice warriors with her partner Sanjay and is proud to call Burlington, Ontario home.

Registration and event coordinates.

Please follow the registration steps for the virtual event. On the day before the event, you will receive a link to join the session. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Anna anna@mendingthechasm.ca .