Mim strives to walk the path given her by Creator, to braid understanding and build bridges between Nations that live on this Land today. Mim comes from both Settler and Indigenous Roots. She works with KAIROS Blanket Exercise, MCC Indigenous Neighbours as Grandmother, lead facilitator, trainer and educator, providing the KAIROS Blanket Exercise to groups in Ontario and the US. Mim has been given the name of Wiingaashke Ikew (Sweetgrass Woman).

Multi-award winning poet, author, and arts educator, Nadine Williams, is a Jamaican-Canadian who has published three collections of poetry, two children’s books and over fourteen volumes of literature for Black History Month. These creations are a staple in the curricula of several schools in Canada in celebration of Black History. She is a regular presenter at schools across Canada, including local universities and was the distinguished guest speaker to the prestigious African Writers Club at the University of Vienna in May 2019.

She is the recipient of the York Regional Police Deeds Speak Award 2014, received parliamentary mention for significant contribution to Black History in Canada in 2019, was recently named among the 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women (100ABC) 2022 and in January 2022 she received an invitation to exhibit her work at The Art Gallery of Mississauga which is currently showing there.

Justine Abigail Yu (she/her) is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere. She was born in Manila, Philippines and moved to Canada when she was just four years old, and much of her life has been a constant tug of war, an ongoing push and pull of these two places, two cultures, two identities. In short, it has been a life of living in between, of living in the hyphen.

Today, Justine is an award-winning writing workshop facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on international, national, and local media outlets include the Globe and Mail, CTV, and the CBC. She was also named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021.

An education professional for almost 23 years with the Toronto District School Board, Erica was born and raised in Ottawa (unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation). She earned a B.A. in English and Psychology from Carleton University, and both her B.Ed. and M.Ed. from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto; her research focused on sociology, equity studies and comparative international development education. Having taken a hiatus from public school teaching, she joined the team at unlearn as Training and Development Specialist in September 2022. Connecting with Lisa at a York Catholic District School Board session, Erica was super excited to be invited to work with the students at Sacred Heart. The storytelling project is such a beautiful way to authentically showcase and share students’ voices. She is grateful to have been welcomed into the school and truly appreciated students’ openness and honesty during the unlearn workshop. Erica remains committed to her own lifelong unlearning, and she encourages all of us to continue to share our stories.

Carleen’s story a narration of faith, hope, love, healing, recovery, and resilience.

Migration journey from Trinidad and Tobago, United States of America and Canada testify of the love of practical teaching at elementary, high school, and tertiary institutions.

Carleen’s health challenges and disability do not define her. With faith in God and self-determination, she has learned to make lemonade with those lemons of life. With five hand surgeries, spinal stenosis, mental health lived experiences, and innumerable challenges, art became a therapeutic lifeline.

Like her matriarch, centurion grandmother (1900-2003), Carleen loves hats! Ironically, she also wears many hats. Carleen is a Minister/Community Resource personnel; an artist, author, poet of Empowered Youth; a social service worker-immigrants and refugees graduate with high honours; a community mental health graduate with honours/mental health therapist; an educational assistant; a teacher; a tutor; and an REV Cottage Creations Entrepreneur.