- This event has passed.
Exploring the Intersections of Colonialism, Racism, and Climate Change
January 20 @ 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Free
This is a special event jointly sponsored by the Vancouver Unitarians’ IPA (IBPOC Plus Allies), Environment Team, Refugee Team and Social Justice Team!
We will share an evening of dinner, learning, stories, and possibly, solutions.
Click below to watch a video of the event:
When: Saturday January 20th 2024 5:30pm
Where: Hewett Hall 949 W 49th Ave, Vancouver
Please register below!
In addition to the potluck dinner and hearing from guest IBPOC speakers, there will be a photo exhibition called Dispossessed but Defiant.
*
About the speakers
Esther Leung-Kong 
Esther is a Vancouver-based Chinese-Canadian Author who aims to educate children on diversity, immigrant struggles, and cultural representation. She is a mother of three, she was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada (Coast Salish Territories) when she was 9 years old.
Esther’s passion includes advocating for justice & compassion both locally and globally through her work at the non-profit organization Culture Regeneration Research Society and the local grassroots charity Vancouver Urban Ministries, leadership development for young people, and inspiring others through music. Throughout the years she has been raising awareness among the Chinese immigrant community about colonial history and treatment of Indigenous people. In 2022 she led a team to translate the “Truth and Reconciliation 94 Calls to Action” into Chinese.
She is the author of the children’s bilingual book “Wonderfully Made 奇妙的傑作”.
Severn Cullis-Suzuki 
Severn has been an activist for intergenerational justice – justice for future generations–her whole life. Deeply concerned about the environment as a child, she started the Environmental Children’s Organization with friends in grade five, which culminated a few years later in a speech to the UN Earth Summit in 1992 at age 12. The speech is still making the rounds as “the girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes.”
Today Severn’s focus is the nexus of decline in diversity of biodiversity, worldviews, economies, language, traditional knowledge and identity. She holds an M.Sc. in Ethnoecology from the University of Victoria, and is currently a Vanier and Public scholar PhD candidate studying endangered language revitalization. Severn is now executive director of the David Suzuki Foundation and, with her husband Judson Brown and their two sons, shares her time between Vancouver and Haida Gwaii, off the coast of British Columbia.
For Severn’s full bio to see what she was up to between 12 years old and now, check out https://severncullissuzuki.com/
Kwiis Hamilton 
Kwiis Hamilton is Nuu Chah Nulth (Opechesaht) and Sto:lo (Lequamel). His parents are Kwitsel Tatel (Patricia Kelly) and Haa’yuups (Ron Hamilton). He practices jewelry making, painting, printmaking, spoken word poetry, wood carving, singing, dancing, and storytelling. Through the creation of well-made objects Kwiis expresses his values and tells modern and traditional stories. His work sheds light on the obsolete systems of domination and exploitation upon which the foundation of the colonial project of canada is built. He hopes to inspire critical thinking and radical expressions of a healthy, educated, safe, and joy filled community, as well as a shared sense of belonging rooted in self location and a strong spiritual identity.
Kyi Min Saw 
My family emigrated to Singapore from Burma when I was five years old. After graduating grade 12, we moved again to Vancouver where I attended UBC and became a lab technologist. I was a member of a group of Burma human rights activists called the Burma Roundtable (1999 to 2009). I later joined a charity founded by Rod Germine called Just Aid Foundation (2001 to 2011). JAF fundraised to support the Mae Tao Clinic, a hospital and medical school that provides essential healthcare to refugees on the Thai-Burma border. JAF also supported Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an organization within Burma that advocates for the release of prisoners of conscience held by the junta.
*
(Image credit: Leonardo Basso / unsplash)