Tanya Clarmont 

Tanya Clarmont is Teme-Augama Anishinabai of Temagami First Nation, ON, as well as French Canadian from the Ottawa Valley.  She grew up in both those communities, going back and forth.  She is the Director of Management Services with the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, which includes managing the Victoria Urban Reconciliation Dialogue and the Bruce Parisian Library. She has worked with Friendship Centres for 20 years and has held positions at the national, provincial and local levels.  Tanya also co-founded the Called to Action Collaborative which is a group of facilitators and educators working together to promote Indigenous relations and reconciliation.  She holds B.A.s in Native Studies and Law & Justice from Laurentian University, and Fine Arts – Creative Writing from the University of Victoria.  Tanya is married with 2 young children.

Asiyah Robinson 

Asiyah Robinson was born and raised on Grand Bahama Island and moved to Lekwungen territories, known today as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations, almost six years ago. Since being here, she has been an avid community member, actively using her voice to work against anti-Muslim and anti-Black sentiment. Throughout all of her community engagements and projects, her primary focus is to connect with, listen to, and learn from under-represented communities to influence necessary systemic change. 

Adam Olsen

Adam Olsen (SȾHENEP) is the Member of the Legislative Assembly for Saanich North and the Islands and member of the B.C. Green Caucus. He was first elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in May 2017 and re-elected in October 2020.

Inspired by the incredible place and people he represents, Adam has a deep love and respect for his home in the Salish Sea (W̱SÁNEĆ). As an advocate and facilitator, he is committed to good governance and improving public participation to strengthen all aspects of the community and the province.

Born in Victoria, BC, Adam has lived, worked and played his entire life on the Saanich Peninsula. He is a member of Tsartlip First Nation (W̱JOȽEȽP), where he and his wife, Emily, are raising their two children, Silas and Ella.

Ariel Reyes Antuan

Ariel Reyes Antuan is an Afro-Cuban food justice advocate, community connector, Afrofuturistic, systematic thinker of mixed ancestry (Haitian, Yoruba, French, and Kongo). Ariel is also the Co-founder of Iyé Creative he focuses on educating and empowering underrepresented groups to reconnect back to the Land and Waters we live on. With the intention of holding space for a regenerative revolution where healing, mutual aid systems, enjoyment, and abundance, are means of breaking through the path of human suffering.

Dr. Moussa Magassa (PhD, IDI.QA)

Dr. Moussa Magassa is the UVic Principal Strategist, EDI, Anti-Racism and Community Engagement. His focus is to enhance understanding of and commitment to the university’s human rights and equity goals by raising the awareness of all UVic communities on a range of human rights issues with the end goal of increasing diversity and creating fair and inclusive work and study environment.

Dr. Magassa is also an associate faculty in both the UVic Social Justice Diploma program and the M.A in Global Leadership program at Royal Roads University. He also teaches at the UBC Centre for intercultural communication and in the UVic diploma program in intercultural studies & practice.

His PhD is in Curriculum and Instruction (UVic) where his research focuses on critical race theory, Anti-racism education, Islamophobia, human rights education, diversity, equity & inclusion, and immigrants and refugees’ integration and adaptation in host communities. Moussa also holds an MA is in human security & peacebuilding (Royal Roads University, Canada); BA (Hons) in conflict resolution and peace studies (Kwazulu Natal University, South Africa). He is a Qualified I.D.I@Administrator with a professional certificate in intercultural development and assessment.

Dr. Moussa Magassa was born in Senegal and speaks many languages ​​in addition to English and French.

Sharmarke Dubow 

Sharmarke Dubow is a Somali-Canadian politician and human rights advocate. He cast his first vote ever in an election on October 20, 2018 and on the same day was elected a city councillor in Victoria, B.C. — the first Black city councillor to be elected in Victoria in 152 years.

Sharmarke has taken great steps to make life more equitable, inclusive, and affordable for people in Victoria through bringing forward motions on free transit, tenants rights and affordable housing. He has championed a welcoming city strategy and has led the City to adopt the UN Decade of People of African Descent. A refugee himself, Sharmarke left Somalia as a child and has worked with refugees in multiple capacities in both Cairo, Egypt and Victoria, BC. Dubow also sits on various regional service and civic committees. Across all of his work, Sharmarke is an advocate for justice and inclusion.

Clint Kuzio 

Clint Kuzio is Cree from Manitoba, the son of Cliff Kuzio and Vangie Johnston.  He is a teacher, lawyer and former public servant with the BC Ministry of Health. Currently Clint works at the University of Victoria as Community Engagement Manager with the team at the First Peoples House supporting Indigenous students on their educational journey. He also teaches in the Indigenous Studies Department and focuses his lectures on helping students unlearn the false narratives taught in the Canadian school system about Indigenous Peoples and Canada. In his free time, Clint spends as much time as possible with his wife Dr. Ilka Thiessen, who he’s been with since 1991, planning the revolution or out walking with their dog, Finn.

Liz Bean

I’m Liz Bean, [and] I serve as coordinator of volunteer services with the Intercultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA). I am an immigrant from the U.S. and a settler on the traditional unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, the Songhees, and the Esquimalt First Nations where ICA does its work helping newcomers build their lives in Canada and fully integrate into the community at large. We are grateful to First Nations people who have stewarded these lands for millennia and time immemorial. 

Florence Dick

Nəʔəmtənat whose English name is Florence Dick is a member of the Songhees Nation. She was born in raised in Lekwungen Territory and has connections, through family. Florence is the mother of a daughter and a son, and she has two grandchildren. Over 20 years ago, Florence advocated for and became the founding member of the community-led committee that imagined and eventually had built the facility now known as the Songhees Wellness Centre.

A fierce advocate for and tireless promoter of the Songhees people, Florence was chosen by chief and Council to represent her Nation as Community (Cultural?) Liaison for the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (2012 To 2016) and currently holds to the position of Cultural Liaison for the Capital Regional District’s Wastewater Treatment Project. Florence’s role has been to act as a bridge between cultures and help to foster stronger government to government relations