2020 Panelists

Terrylynn “Será:sera” Brant, Mohawk Nation, Six Nations Territory. As a retired educator and lifelong traditional Seedkeeper she spends her time gardening, beekeeping, breeding corn, rematriating Haudenosaunee seeds and revitalizing Indigenous agricultural ways. She speaks internationally about indigenous climate smart agriculture and Food Security and writes the column “In My Longhouse Basket”. She authored the book “Culturally Appropriate Aboriginal Education”. Será:sera is building an Earthship at her public gardens, to be used as a Haudenosaunee Sustainable Skills Centre. All are welcome to come and share as we revitalize our responsibility to live in harmony with Mother Earth. Contact: www.seedkeeper.ca or facebook: Mohawk Seedkeeper.

 

 

 

 

Juanita Burnett is a mom, a library worker (and book addict), an activist, a feminist, a communist. She sings at karaoke, and like growing things. She is learning how to garden on her balcony. She wants to be a writer when she grows up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lauren Burrows is a cisgender queer Black settler who has been involved in social change work for over ten years. She has experience as an educator, consultant, and student affairs practitioner and currently provides her labour to Wilfrid Laurier University’s, Centre for Student Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jody Chan (they/them) is a writer, organizer, and therapist-in-training living in Toronto. They believe deeply in the importance of storytelling, care, and joy in movement-building. Currently working at The Leap, they also organize with the Disability Justice Network of Ontario and drum with the Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Natali Euale Montilla is a Venezuelan immigrant to these lands, currently residing on the ancestral territory of the Attawandaron (Chonnonton), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples and the treaty land of the Mississaugas of the Credit (Guelph, ON). She is of mixed ancestry from Cuica territory in the Andes of Venezuela and from Greece and Italy. She currently works at OPIRG Guelph and organizes with Guelph Anti-Pipeline in solidarity with Indigenous struggles against extractive industries.

 

 

 

 

 

Shabina Lafleur-Gangji is a mixed Indian, Persian and French herbalist involved in healing justice work. She uses herbal medicine as a way to fundraise and redirect wealth towards BIPOC-led movements for freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Horeen Hassan is a student organizer at the University of Guelph, currently working as the VP External for the Central Student Association. Throughout her term, she has been vocalizing the importance of student action around climate change, while also stressing the importance of taking leadership from Indigenous and racialized communities when taking climate action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mandy Hiscocks is a long-time activist and organizer who calls Guelph home. She believes that with a bit more understanding of how various tactics interact, and if we prioritize respect for people’s needs and boundaries, we can strengthen and diversify all of our movements. And have a lot more fun!

 

 

 

 

 

Cheyenne Sundance is a self-taught organic farmer who now lives in Toronto, Ontario. She is also a food justice educator with experience in community organizing and political resistance movements. She has founded Sundance Harvest, an year round urban farm focusing on food justice and the eradication of systemic racism in the food system. More recently, she created Radical Roots, Toronto’s first urban farm coop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obehi Okaka (she/her) is a queer, Nigerian community organizer residing in Guelph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karen Houle is a Professor of Philosophy who thinks better with their hands in the soil, but only if that soil is healthy. They are also a poet, a grandmother, a curler, a hunter-gatherer, a volunteer, a social justice activist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine Euale Montilla is a textile artist and crafter working with natural dyes and pigments as well as bio-fabrication of materials and research in algae bio-plastics, kombucha and mycelium leather skins. In her practice she seeks to create a dialogue between humans and nature in order to counter the current toxic system of overconsumption perpetuated by the fashion and textile industry. Through this work she also poses the exploration of viable alternatives or solutions to polluting processes used by these industries in order to advocate integrative, symbiotic and empathetic design.

 

 

 

 

 

Jax Thornton (they/them) is a genderless entity hellbent on saving the earth and is Guelph’s local cryptid. Having been fed up, they ran for office twice in an attempt to bring ecosocialist values into mainstream politics. Currently, they organize with OPIRG, Extinction Rebellion, and local Indigenous solidarity movements. If seen lurking downtown, DO NOT make direct eye contact, and offer them something shiny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ben Reid-Howells is a transnational community organiser who believes that globally connected, locally enacted community-led direct action is a powerful means of regeneration: socially, ecologically and politically. Son of Scottish/English immigrants he identifies with both colonised and coloniser and strives to connect community initiatives across Turtle Island and beyond to co-create resilient, shared futures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamara Lorincz is a PhD candidate in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University, with a masters in International Politics & Security Studies and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management. Her research is on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She’s a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mina Ramos is a licensed paralegal working in the field of refugee law. She has spent 8 years organizing in the struggle for migrant justice in Canada. Prior to her work in the legal field, Mina has organized in solidarity with migrant workers across southern Ontario fighting for equality in labour rights and with immigration detainees fighting to change laws against indefinite immigration detention in Canada. She is passionate about the freedom of movement of all people and beings and the respect of indigenous sovereignty around the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Beze Gray is a two spirit Anishinabe/Oneida/Delaware from Aamjiwnaang First Nation. Beze has been a land defender and water protector since they were in grade 8. Now studies Anishinabemowin, practices cultural land activities and land defence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matt Soltys is a father of two children and has been active in social & environmental justice movements for 20 years. He is a long-time member of the Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner organizing committee, and over the years he has tried to integrate a lens and practice of decolonization into all parts of his life, whether as a community organizer, journalist, orchardist, or parent.