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Intercultural Team Forum: Bicultural Identity and Belonging
What are the ingredients to fostering a sense of belonging? What are the barriers? Please join us in celebrating Asian Heritage Month by engaging in a joyful, in-depth interactive exchange about how to build a community through action where people feel empowered to bring their whole selves to it.
Guest speakers include Faly Mevamanana, Tricia Trinh, Ricardo Aguilar Valles, Ava Jung, Wiley Ho.
Faly Mevamanana is an award-winning actor and writer. She has performed leading roles in seven provinces across Canada, including roles with Neptune Theatre, Western Canada Theatre, and the Grand Theatre.
Offstage, she was a writing shadow on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and a Program Associate with Nightwood Theatre. Her first play “The Baking Show Show: The Play” premiered with Ruby Slippers Theatre in February 2026. Faly is also the creator, writer, and star of the new comedy TV series “Be Better” for Bell Fibe TV1.
As a queer mixed-race creator, Faly is passionate about telling stories which showcase marginalized voices in a joyful way.
Tricia Trinh is a queer, genderfluid, Chinese-Vietnamese-Canadian, multidisciplinary theatre artist; with a background in playwrighting, directing, performing and producing. Graduate of University of Victoria [BFA]. Their artistic practice prioritizes the multifaceted existence in intersectional lived experiences, specifically investigating intercultural socio-political influence on queer identity, gender identity and diaspora identity.
Selected Playwright–Director Credits: Probability [rEvolver 2018], Red Glimmer [Fringe 2019], Attachments [Tremors Festival 2020 & Advance Theatre Festival 2024], Diosa Volcanica [Infinity Fire 2023], Duality [Infinity Fire 2024]
Selected Director Credit: Dil Ka [Ruby Slippers Theatre 2024]
Selected Assistant Director Credits: we the same [Ruby Slippers 2021], Henry V [Bard on the Beach 2023]
Their practice is committed to cross-pollinating social justice with storytelling through an anti-oppressive decolonial lens. This commitment actualizes in the form of creating new multidisciplinary theatre with feminist-forward, gender non-conforming and BIPOC stories at the forefront; as a freelance artist and through their collective Dusty Foot Productions. The dedication to spearheading opportunities for underserved emerging theatre creators is demonstrated through their work as: Artistic Producer –Rumble Theatre [New Cabaret Series], Program Producer –frank theatre [Telling It Bent: Queer Youth Playwriting Program] and Producer –Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre [MSG Playwrighting Lab].
Ricardo Aguillar Valles is a Settlement Worker with the I Belong Program at MOSAIC. I support newcomers who are part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, assisting them in navigating systems such as healthcare, housing, and language services, while helping them build a sense of belonging in their new environment.
Ava Jung works as the Community Engagement Officer at S.U.C.C.E.S.S., a non-partisan, non-profit multicultural Canadian organization with a proud 50+ year history of serving newcomers, seniors, youth, and families. In her role, she manages the volunteers for a variety of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. services, meeting people from all walks of life. She herself is a mixed-race Chinese Canadian, born and raised in Greater Vancouver with a degree in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice and Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies from UBC. She is particularly passionate about Vancouver’s historic Chinatown, cultural heritage preservation, and the politics surrounding mixed-race identity.
Wiley Ho is a Taiwanese Canadian writer, whose stories and personal essays have been published in various literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. Her first book The Astronaut Children of Dunbar Street: A Memoir was published this spring by Douglas & McIntyre, currently on the BC Bestsellers List. When not writing she’s busy community building or growing Asian vegetables in her front yard.