Decolonial and Anti-Racist Approaches to Wellbeing

This three-part workshop series will explore wellbeing through a decolonial and anti-racist lens. Participants will collectively work to re-think and re-imagine what wellbeing looks like in our personal and professional lives. These 2.5 hour sessions – held across three months and facilitated by one of Canada’s most influential speakers, Larissa Crawford from Future Ancestors — will help faculty and staff identify opportunities to advance anti-racism, decolonization, and Indigenization at UBC.

If you want to help create just, sustainable, and ethical relationships between UBC and the communities they serve, this course is for you.

This series will move through three key themes:

Decolonizing Our Relationship to Earth and Wellbeing (Climate Justice)
Building Our Capacity to Leverage and Advance Anti-Racism
Applying Our Decolonization and Anti-Racism Learnings at UBC

Participants will:

Explore the existence of relationships to Earth and wellbeing in our lives and work,
Understand how systemic barriers are created and maintained through individuals, institutions, and ecosystems,
Explore anti-racist tools and mechanisms,
Deepen understanding of how restorative practice can inform an individual and institutional approach to anti-racist spaces and relationships,
Re-think success and use relational success criteria to define success in our personal and professional lives,
Engage in a dialogue-intent space that seeks to clarify your role in achieving institutional anti-racist and reconciliation goals at UBC.

Dates & Times:

Wednesday, July 20 @ 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. PST
Wednesday, August 31 @ 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. PST
Wednesday, September 21 @ 12 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. PST

Location: Zoom.

Important notes for this three-part series:

You are required to attend all 3 sessions,
Sessions will be recorded and shared with participants who attend the sessions for a set period of time. Breakout room discussions will not be recorded,
Each session is 2.5 hours and will include breaks,
Sessions will require active participation at times, including breakout rooms that will not be recorded,
All participants will receive access to virtual resources and a certificate of completion,
ASL interpretation will be available for all 3 sessions.
If you have questions or accommodation requests, please email Lauren Lee at lau.lee@ubc.ca

Facilitator:

Larissa Crawford proudly passes on Métis and Jamaican ancestry to her daughter, Zyra, and is a published Indigenous and anti-racism researcher and policy advisor with over 13 years of experience. Larissa is the Founder of Future Ancestors Services, a youth-led professional services social enterprise that operates at the intersection of climate and racial justice.

Since the launch of Future Ancestors Services in April 2020, Larissa and her team seek to increase their clients’ capacity to honour people and Planet through their minds, work, and spaces, and do so while leveraging decolonized and Indigenized approaches to ‘doing business.’ Among their +300 diverse clients are small youth-led collectives and non-profits; Canada’s most influential law firms and publishing houses; and the highest offices of Canadian government.

Larissa’s lived experience as an Indigenous and Black woman; a survivor of sexual violence and poverty; a person living with a chronic pain disability; having lived in both rural and urban settings; and as a young mother positions her to carry out her responsibilities as a future ancestor with unique insight and consideration. The perspectives she carries and amplifies are frequently undervalued, and as of late, her role at Future Ancestors Services Inc. has become her most significant vessel of action in response to this reality.

In 2020-21, Larissa was honoured in Women of Influence’s Top 25 list; in Refinery Canada’s 29 Powerhouses; as York University’s Top 30 Under 30 Alumni; in HuffPost’s 26 Indigenous Influencers to Follow; and with the Pollution Probe Equity in Sustainability Award. She supports international brands such as Merrell, an outdoor gear company, and The Body Shop as a Leading Light, in better serving and representing her communities.

Larissa is currently based in Calgary, the Traditional Territory of Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani Nations), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe (Stoney) Nakoda Nations, and traditional homeland of the Métis Nation, Region 3.