Recording and links: Leading Transformative Changes as Acts of Resistance

Rhiannon Bennett (she/her) is Musqueam Indian Band member, and she has been working with children, youth and families for over 20 years in a variety of roles with overarching themes of her work being decolonization. In 2014, she was the first Indigenous person elected to the Delta Board of Education. Following that, she was inspired to launch a consulting firm with her running-mate to continue her work in the community.

Sleydo’ (Molly Wickham) is the spokesperson for the Gidimt’en check-point on Wet’suwet’en territory. She holds the name in Cas Yikh (grizzly house) and has been living on and occupying the territory since 2014 with her husband and children. Gidimt’en check-point has been an Indigenous reoccupation site since 2018 which has been raided twice by militarized RCMP, once on January 7th 2019 and again on February 5th, 2020, as a result of grassroots resistance to the Coastal Gaslink pipeline project which would bring fracked gas from northeastern B.C to an LNG terminal near Kitimat. Sleydo’ has a masters degree in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria and is heavily involved in the Wet’suwet’en clan governance system.

You can also find Yintah Access on Instagram.

Tasha Spillett (she/her/hers) draws her strength from both her Inninewak (Cree) and Trinidadian bloodlines. She is a celebrated educator, poet, and emerging scholar. Tasha is most heart-tied to contributing to community-led work that centres on land and water defence, and the protection of Indigenous women and girls. Tasha is currently working on her Ph.D. in Education through the University of Saskatchewan, where she holds a Vanier Canada Award.

In her work as a doctoral student, she is weaving in her cultural identity, and commitment to community to produce a body of research that echoes Indigenous women’s demands for justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People. Her work is a continuation of the resistance against the assault of colonialism that she has inherited.

An active member of Manitoba’s Indigenous community, Tasha is a ceremony woman and a traditional singer.

“The Storyteller” is Tai Simpson‘s name in the Indigenous language of the Nez Perce Tribe. Tai studied Sociology and Political Philosophy at Boise State University. In the community, she serves as an organizer for the Indigenous Idaho Alliance and works as a Social Change Advocate with the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence. As an antiracism activist and community leader, she uses contemporary and traditional Indigenous storytelling to champion radical inclusion, equity, and liberation.

You can find Tai on Instagram.

Siobhan (sha-von/they/she), is of a stolen people living on the stolen, unceded, and ancestral land of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As a gender-fluid person of mixed African-Indigenous-Latinx-European ancestry living with disability they recognize and value the many intersectionalities that contribute to furthering decolonization practices. Siobhan is a published and Nationally recognized bilingual writer and performer. Siobhan’s community and artistic work, explores relational justice in many forms. A Justice/Equity/Diversity/Inclusion(JEDI) speaker on organizational change, a facilitator with an emphasis on Disability Justice, Body Liberation and Food Justice with Hogan’s Alley Society, The Federation of Black Canadians, Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, Community Food Centres Canada, and through consultancy.

You can find Siobhan on Instagram.

Lyra McKee is a white settler trans woman who moved to Coast Salish territories from the States 5 years ago. She is the community-based Co-Executive Director of PACE Society, a grassroots nonprofit in the Downtown Eastside for, by and with sex workers of all genders. Lyra holds a B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies from Dartmouth College and an M.A. in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from the University of British Columbia. Lyra brings lived experience of sex work, poverty, homelessness, and drug use to any space she occupies and aspires to be an advocate for herself, her communities, and her peers.

You can find Lyra on Instagram.