CommunALLY
Building cross-community allyship
CommunALLY approaches reconciliation by strengthening Indigenous and Migrant youth relationships through open and honest dialogues about allyship, inequity, colonialism, racism, and justice. The project is founded upon the belief that collective conversation leads to collective action and stronger allyship among racialized groups.
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The project is designed to be dynamic and reflective of community needs. It is led by Indigenous and migrant youth, as well as co-designed with Indigenous and Migrant-led youth organizations. To date, the project has included a storytelling component, cross-community consultations, and a Gathering of youth.
The CommunALLY Gathering (2022)
The CommunALLY Gathering (March 12 and 13, 2022) is designed to strengthen relationships between youth of Refugee, Immigrant, Newcomer, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities. For too long, colonialism has kept these communities apart by feeding narratives that they don’t have commonalities in experiences or by pitting them against one another for resources. The reality is that many migrants and Indigenous peoples share similar experiences of undergoing colonization and Westernization. These shared experiences can create avenues for solidarity building to fight colonialism and advance reconciliation.
In this program, youth will use experiential learning through arts, film, and interpersonal connection to explore what solidarity means for them. At the end of the program, youth will co-create recommendations for solidarity building between Indigenous and Migrant peoples.
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We invite youth from Indigenous and Migrant communities to sign up for this Gathering. All event expenses are covered.
Here's a look at some of our Gathering Sessions:
Session 1:
Creating a safe and respectful space for allyship
Session 2:
Asserting our own intersectional identities
Session 3:
Connecting across communities using art therapy
Session 4:
Affirming the rights of Indigenous peoples through solidarity work- film screening
Session 5:
Effective approaches to allyship through a co-design session
Previous stages of CommunALLY
This report gives an overview of CommunALLY thus far. In the summer of 2020, we began this project through a pilot story collection phase and consultation process. This report summarizes our learnings from these discussions and what we intend to do with this knowledge moving forward. This report situates CommunALLY in the context of a colonial Canada and the experiences of Indigenous, immigrant and refugee peoples as individuals, as communities, and in broader society.
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