My work blends elements and teachings from traditional Indigenous art & culture with contemporary mixed media ways of storytelling.

My latest work combines painting with beadwork to explore themes of gender, queerness, health, community and how that exists in the individual experience of meaning-making. This piece utilizes common Indigenous symbolism through the conscious use of line, shape and colour in the glass beads which contrasts with the cool tones used in the abstract acrylic pour background.

The severance between self, identity, community and health has intimate familiarity that ties directly to experiences of colonialism, genocide and the remnants felts by residential schools. The Two-Spirit panelists as part of (Summit 2020:) Resistance and Resilience through Culture: Building a Two-Spirit Longhouse shared on the beauty and struggle of intersecting identities, both traditional and colonial. Through my work, I examine and sit with the idea that within the process of discharging disassociation, our ability to endure a journey of returning to and comfortably residing within our bodies and communities is our medicine.

Actively connecting with ambiguous, physical and metaphysical ideas of self is an active undertaking of resistance to colonial normative ways of being that does not need to sit with just the individual but within a larger context of meaning-making mechanisms that are utilized in creating concepts of self.

Jean Baptiste, KihêwMahihkanÂtayôhkanIskwêw, is a nonbinary Two-Spirit member of the Wet’suwet’en nation in the Laksilyu clan. Since they were a child, they have been on a journey of exploring their passion of storytelling through various mediums. Their primary means of expression is beadwork and that has evolved to explore incorporating traditional Indigenous mediums with contemporary mixed media.They have also explored poetry, spoken word,draglesque and other embodied forms of expression. Each piece they produce is grounded out of their experiences consciously delving into their relationship with their body, community, history, and self-identity.

At the BC Community Advocates Conference I was inspired by Rahim Thawer’s presentation, “Ambiguous (Pandemic Feels)” and Syrus Marcus Ware’s presentation, “Activism as Speculative Fiction- Making Change For The Future”.  In particular, Syrus Marcus Ware’s focus on systems and the life cycle–seeds grow, become a tree or a system, and crises happen that necessitate an adjustment to the system or a change to it that requires implanting new seeds.  

In light of my experience of the conference, my artworks are “Earth”, “Ambiguous Feelings”, Medicine and Poison” and “Seeds Seeking the Self”.  I hope these works, embedded in a special virtual experience, speak to you and to what we are facing today.  

Thank you so much for participating in the BC Community Advocates Conference. It was a honour for me to be chosen by the HIM committee.   

Please visit my website for an update on my coming illustrated book, Little Red Riding Hijab.  

I am a creative artist, multimedia specialist, and the founder of LabMations a digital media company which seeks to bring great stories, characters and experiences to people around the world. Three of my current projects are Missing Santa Show,  Super Stories Shop  podcast for Middle Eastern kids and an illustrated children’s book Little Red Riding Hijab. 

I was born in the Middle East and am a recent immigrant to Canada. Back home, I lived in a densely populated ghetto, under occupation, experiencing violence and destruction.   But I learned to keep looking forward, evolving a positive outlook.  I’m happiest when I’m able to bring my creative abilities to my work life to make a deference. 

I have two Bachelor degrees, one from the Middle East and a recent Bachelor of Design from Emily Carr University for Art and Design in Vancouver. My education had a great impact on my art by encouraging me to improve my methods with technology and create new immersive experiences. I am a storyteller who loves learning about new technology to enhance my art, telling important and entertaining stories and engaging new projects, and always expanding my artistic bandwidth.

My piece was inspired by the Integrated Panel: Changing the Narrative on HIV and STBBI Testing: Innovations and Community Reflections. Seeing people working to improve HIV and STBBI testing for has made me feel hopeful while at the same time, the presentation also revealed areas where much work still needs to be done.

The poster was created using vector graphics combined with digital drawings made using a stylus in order to portray current and future possibilities for HIV testing. The COVID-19 pandemic has become another barrier faced by LGBTQ2I+ people trying to access HIV and STBBI testing as well as support in a safe environment. Portrayed in the poster is the at home HIV self testing kit currently sold in Canada along with an oral swab that is currently not available in Canada as of January 2021 but is used in other countries to test for HIV. Giving people the ability to administer their own tests is one way to give people access to testing in a private and socially distanced manner but just as important as testing is the ability to access to support systems that are relevant for LGBTQ2I+ people. At the moment, connecting people who administer their HIV and STBBI tests at home with counselling and treatment services is something still being worked on but has the potential to increase accessibility and encourage people to seek out support and advice.

My name is Mel (They/Them), I run social media pages dedicated to health advocacy and education with a focus on QT2IPOC perspectives. I started posting on social media around the time I started learning to create vector graphics. During that time, I realized that I could use my art as a way to express my views on QT2IPOC health. My original pieces, which can be found by searching @qtpochealth, are created using photo editing that combines vector, raster, and hand drawn images that I have created.

At the BC Community Advocates Conference I was inspired by Rahim Thawer’s presentation, “Ambiguous Feelings” and Syrus Marcus Ware’s presentation, “Activism as Speculative Fiction- Making Change For The Future”.  In particular, Syrus Marcus Ware’s focus on systems and the life cycle–seeds grow, become a tree or a system, and crises happen that necessitate an adjustment to the system or a change to it that requires implanting new seeds.  

In light of my experience of the conference, my artworks are “Earth”, “Ambiguous Feelings”, Medicine and Poison” and “Seeds Seeking the Self”.  I hope these works, embedded in a special virtual experience, speak to you and to what we are facing today.  

Thank you so much for participating in the BC Community Advocates Conference. It was a honour for me to be chosen by the HIM committee.   

Please visit my website for an update on my coming illustrated book, Little Red Riding Hijab.  

I am a creative artist, multimedia specialist, and the founder of LabMations a digital media company which seeks to bring great stories, characters and experiences to people around the world. Three of my current projects are Missing Santa Show,  Super Stories Shop  podcast for Middle Eastern kids and an illustrated children’s book Little Red Riding Hijab. 

I was born in the Middle East and am a recent immigrant to Canada. Back home, I lived in a densely populated ghetto, under occupation, experiencing violence and destruction.   But I learned to keep looking forward, evolving a positive outlook.  I’m happiest when I’m able to bring my creative abilities to my work life to make a deference. 

I have two Bachelor degrees, one from the Middle East and a recent Bachelor of Design from Emily Carr University for Art and Design in Vancouver. My education had a great impact on my art by encouraging me to improve my methods with technology and create new immersive experiences. I am a storyteller who loves learning about new technology to enhance my art, telling important and entertaining stories and engaging new projects, and always expanding my artistic bandwidth.

Nathan NAZO Davis is a visual artist with roots in graffiti spanning over three decades. His vibrant colours and skillful techniques learned at an early age lend well to his current mediums of choice. From realistic animal portraits to custom model trains, from large scale murals and abstract paintings to digital illustration, Nathan’s work has evolved into an organic representation of what inspires him. Since moving to Victoria BC with his husband and fellow artist Kristofer Parley, into the Heart of Canada’s Oldest Chinatown, his surroundings became a muse from where his creativity flows. 

At the BC Community Advocates Conference I was inspired by Rahim Thawer’s presentation, “Ambiguous Feelings” and Syrus Marcus Ware’s presentation, “Activism as Speculative Fiction- Making Change For The Future”.  In particular, Syrus Marcus Ware’s focus on systems and the life cycle–seeds grow, become a tree or a system, and crises happen that necessitate an adjustment to the system or a change to it that requires implanting new seeds.  

In light of my experience of the conference, my artworks are “Earth”, “Ambiguous Feelings”, Medicine and Poison” and “Seeds Seeking the Self”.  I hope these works, embedded in a special virtual experience, speak to you and to what we are facing today.  

Thank you so much for participating in the BC Community Advocates Conference. It was a honour for me to be chosen by the HIM committee.   

Please visit my website for an update on my coming illustrated book, Little Red Riding Hijab.  

I am a creative artist, multimedia specialist, and the founder of LabMations a digital media company which seeks to bring great stories, characters and experiences to people around the world. Three of my current projects are Missing Santa Show,  Super Stories Shop  podcast for Middle Eastern kids and an illustrated children’s book Little Red Riding Hijab. 

I was born in the Middle East and am a recent immigrant to Canada. Back home, I lived in a densely populated ghetto, under occupation, experiencing violence and destruction.   But I learned to keep looking forward, evolving a positive outlook.  I’m happiest when I’m able to bring my creative abilities to my work life to make a deference. 

I have two Bachelor degrees, one from the Middle East and a recent Bachelor of Design from Emily Carr University for Art and Design in Vancouver. My education had a great impact on my art by encouraging me to improve my methods with technology and create new immersive experiences. I am a storyteller who loves learning about new technology to enhance my art, telling important and entertaining stories and engaging new projects, and always expanding my artistic bandwidth. 

I have been utterly fascinated with exploring under the sea lately. Not only is it a world filled with unknown wonder, it is also a great artistic metaphor for our subconscious minds. Furthermore, it represents what society neglects. Much of our garbage ends up in the ocean, forgotten civilizations/forgotten lives, sunken ships/sunken dreams. I have especially been interested in things that are reclaimed by the sea, particularly the otherworldly sculptures of Jason Decaires Taylor in which he puts sculptures in the ocean of actual living human beings which are also very conveniently conducive to coral growth. He is putting art in the ocean, not to be forgotten, but to bring awareness and create new life. 

Similarly I was struck during the conference with the idea of two-spirit people being forgotten even within indigenous cultures. As someone who is of mixed European and Mi’kmaw heritage I have always felt an affinity with the term two-spirit. It perfectly encapsulates how I identify as a gender-queer drag queen. Some say I am not native enough to identify with the term two-spirit (as I have more European ancestry in my blood than First Nations) and perhaps they’re right. I still feel a deep connection to indigenous people around the world and their plight however. During the conference the conflicts between the independent Mi’kmaw lobster fisherman and the larger commercial fisheries was also a topic that was mentioned. The blatant racism, and active colonialism of this whole story reminded me that there is still a huge battle raging for indigenous people and the natural world. As a symbol of that I included an Atlantic lobster in the foreground of the painting and also a North Atlantic Right Whale in the back which is currently critically endangered due to human activity (largely commercial fisheries). 

The main two figures are sculptures of two male lovers and the protrusions on their heads are not so much meant to represent feathers or Mohawks (conventional representations of First Nations people) but moreso the concept of energy projecting outward. Though two-spirited people may be neglected by society, we do still exist and we are still projecting our energy out into the world. 

The conference reminded me of the interconnectivity of everything, from the pandemic, to the politics of waste and greed, to the sublimation of First Nations cultures and the total disregard for nature in the modern world. This painting is my attempt to represent all of those thoughts and feelings while also paying homage to the beauty of Mother Nature and Two-Spirit Love. 

Shannon Lester received his MFA from UBCO in Interdisciplinary Painting & Performance in 2013. He is also an event producer and drag performance artist known as Sasha Zamolodchikova and is very active in the local lgbtq2+ community of Kelowna, BC where he resides. Shannon has been painting for over twenty years now and has exhibited widely across Canada, and Japan. Shannon’s art can be found on Facebook and Instagram under @shannonlesterart and Sasha can be found at @mistress_sashaz Keep an eye out for Shannon’s new show on unicorns.live SASHA TV Live Paint : Feeling Her Fantasy which debuts on January 11th. www.shannonlester.com

At the BC Community Advocates Conference I was inspired by Rahim Thawer’s presentation, “Ambiguous Feelings” and Syrus Marcus Ware’s presentation, “Activism as Speculative Fiction- Making Change For The Future”.  In particular, Syrus Marcus Ware’s focus on systems and the life cycle–seeds grow, become a tree or a system, and crises happen that necessitate an adjustment to the system or a change to it that requires implanting new seeds.  

In light of my experience of the conference, my artworks are “Earth”, “Ambiguous Feelings”, Medicine and Poison” and “Seeds Seeking the Self”.  I hope these works, embedded in a special virtual experience, speak to you and to what we are facing today.  

Thank you so much for participating in the BC Community Advocates Conference. It was a honour for me to be chosen by the HIM committee.   

Please visit my website for an update on my coming illustrated book, Little Red Riding Hijab.  

I am a creative artist, multimedia specialist, and the founder of LabMations a digital media company which seeks to bring great stories, characters and experiences to people around the world. Three of my current projects are Missing Santa Show,  Super Stories Shop  podcast for Middle Eastern kids and an illustrated children’s book Little Red Riding Hijab. 

I was born in the Middle East and am a recent immigrant to Canada. Back home, I lived in a densely populated ghetto, under occupation, experiencing violence and destruction.   But I learned to keep looking forward, evolving a positive outlook.  I’m happiest when I’m able to bring my creative abilities to my work life to make a deference. 

I have two Bachelor degrees, one from the Middle East and a recent Bachelor of Design from Emily Carr University for Art and Design in Vancouver. My education had a great impact on my art by encouraging me to improve my methods with technology and create new immersive experiences. I am a storyteller who loves learning about new technology to enhance my art, telling important and entertaining stories and engaging new projects, and always expanding my artistic bandwidth. 

Living at the end of the road, far from the hustle of even the nearest village, I am drawn to try and capture faces. I draw and paint many more people than I ever come into contact with. Their smiles make me smile, their pains make me suffer. 

My piece, “Not Our First Rodeo”, is a mixed media painting using transparent watercolour, acrylic gouache and paint as well as coloured pencil. My piece is part portrait, part figurative. My penchant for faces had me wanting to try and capture Dr. Nathan Lachowsky and his caring countenance. 

Nathan’s presentation was “Making Visible the Impacts of Covid-19 on Our Communities”. The presentation left me hopeful, knowing we have the strengths and resources to get through this time. We have been here before. 

The diverse nature of the LGBTQ2+ community facing once again a global pandemic came through to me in Nathan’s words. They formed a round in my mind, “This is not our first rodeo. No one story tells it all. We have strengths and can support each other, after all… this is not our first rodeo.” 

The summit’s theme of resistance and responsibility is reflected in my piece. Resistance is defined as the attempt to prevent something by action. The portrait of Dr Nathan Lachowsky is meant to symbolize the knowledge we’ve gained by living through the global Aids pandemic. A divine presence, an overseer, knowledge is God in this presentation. The figurative element shows members of our communities working together and, rather on the nose, supporting each other, after all, ‘this is not our first rodeo’. 

Chris Roberts is a mixed media visual artist working primarily in transparent watercolours and acrylic gouache. Chris has focused on portraiture, predominantly men, he fuels his fire with images from the internet. Instagram has become his lifeline connecting him to both models and an encouraging artist community. 

Chris is relatively new to visual art having spent the majority of his life as an oyster farmer in Okeover Inlet, on the Upper Sunshine Coast. Introduced to the art of sketchbook keeping and watercolour painting in a few seminars with the illustrious visual artist Prashant Miranda in the summer of 2019, he really only developed his art habit mid-March at the beginning of the COVID-19 lock-down when a friend offered him the challenge of drawing something every day for a month. Drawing became painting and the habit became an obsession. 

This past summer Chris participated in his first group show What the Plus (+), a group art exhibition by 17 local LGBTQ2+ (and allied) artists, guest curated by Giovanni Spezzacatena (Rabideye). 

My piece of art is a positive celebration of the LGBTQIA2S+ community and the importance of mental health and self-care. I would like to celebrate equality and human rights. With all of the heaviness that has been going around in the world, I decided to do a photoshoot of myself in 5 different colours to resemble the pride flag. Learning about history, and what our ancestors did to provide us with the freedom we have now, I wanted to celebrate this moment. This inspiration initially came from an equality campaign that I saw, and thought I would like to recreate this in my own way. We are all beautiful in any colour, shape, or size. I hired a photographer, and we shot this over Facetime which was a really fun experience. As a creative, I’ve always wanted to create something in our community and doing this workshop allowed me to execute this vision. 

I really enjoyed the presentations I was able to see (WORKSHOP — Anti-Racism and Lessons from Liberation – Cicely Belle Blain; WORKSHOP — CONSENT AND RESPECT: TALK IS GOOD, ACTION IS BETTER!; SHORT ORAL PRESENTATIONS: HEALTH EQUITY/INCLUSION), and each one of them was so informative and left me thinking about my experiences, growth, and steps I could take for change. Listening to these speakers triggered some of my personal experiences that connected with the speaker. It was a long thought process, but I felt great being able to reflect on some things I do not usually allow myself to feel. Can’t wait to see the rest! 

The 4 presentations I listed are very relative to our community. Working in the entertainment industry, there is a lot of ongoing issues with consent, equality, diversity & inclusion, etc. These are all situations I have personally experienced negatively, and I wanted to create a uplifting piece. 

My artwork is taking ownership of who I am, who we are, and not standing down against any hate, discrimination, anti- racism, etc. I am taking responsibility as a fellow community member, and will continue to create awareness and take action towards the change I want for our future. 

Renowned for his beyond innovative, eccentric and rather inspiring take on personal style, Fashion Stylist & Creative Director Jason Pillay continuously steps outside the ‘rules of fashion’ by exercising his innate fondness for experimenting with hues, textures and imaginative elements. Asides from his work in the fashion industry, Jason is an active enthusiast in the local community and an advocate for equality, social justice, and LGTBQIA2S+ rights. He continues to be a passionate community member all while using his voice to address current events. With an incredible passion to be diverse in all areas of his profession, Jason excels at working relentlessly and living and breathing by the motto “Be Yourself”. 

At the BC Community Advocates Conference I was inspired by Rahim Thawer’s presentation, “Ambiguous Feelings” and Syrus Marcus Ware’s presentation, “Activism as Speculative Fiction- Making Change For The Future”.  In particular, Syrus Marcus Ware’s focus on systems and the life cycle–seeds grow, become a tree or a system, and crises happen that necessitate an adjustment to the system or a change to it that requires implanting new seeds.  

In light of my experience of the conference, my artworks are “Earth”, “Ambiguous Feelings”, Medicine and Poison” and “Seeds Seeking the Self”.  I hope these works, embedded in a special virtual experience, speak to you and to what we are facing today.  

Thank you so much for participating in the BC Community Advocates Conference. It was a honour for me to be chosen by the HIM committee.   

Please visit my website for an update on my coming illustrated book, Little Red Riding Hijab.  

I am a creative artist, multimedia specialist, and the founder of LabMations a digital media company which seeks to bring great stories, characters and experiences to people around the world. Three of my current projects are Missing Santa Show,  Super Stories Shop  podcast for Middle Eastern kids and an illustrated children’s book Little Red Riding Hijab. 

I was born in the Middle East and am a recent immigrant to Canada. Back home, I lived in a densely populated ghetto, under occupation, experiencing violence and destruction.   But I learned to keep looking forward, evolving a positive outlook.  I’m happiest when I’m able to bring my creative abilities to my work life to make a deference. 

I have two Bachelor degrees, one from the Middle East and a recent Bachelor of Design from Emily Carr University for Art and Design in Vancouver. My education had a great impact on my art by encouraging me to improve my methods with technology and create new immersive experiences. I am a storyteller who loves learning about new technology to enhance my art, telling important and entertaining stories and engaging new projects, and always expanding my artistic bandwidth. 

For this art piece, Whales in Captivity: A Pandemic Frockumentary, I wanted to bring in my campy brand, but also show a more emotional side. I thought this would be best captured in an artistic documentary style format, as I have been collaborating on videos with my creative pod partner throughout the pandemic. 

After taking part in the CBRC Summit 2020 and attending the Ambiguous Pandemic Feels session, I believed I would be able to best represent the discussion points through my own  lens. I had interacted online with members of my community going through those same ambiguous feelings, and felt that sharing my story of 2020 will be something relatable. Through making this project, I hope others can connect and relate with my story. 

The theme of the 2020 CBRC Summit was Resistance and Responsibility. Whales in Captivity touches on the resistance of the human spirit from becoming stagnant and the responsibility we all had in trying to stay safe in 2020. And remember: wash your fins!! 

I am Freida Whales, an Okanagan-based drag artist, who has been performing in the valley and beyond for four years. With my drag artistry, I like to venture into a little bit of everything, but campy comedy is what I swim after most. 

This year’s Summit 2020: Resistance and Responsibility asks us to find ways to respond to critical issues facing queer and trans communities including the impact of COVID-19, systemic racism, and health inequalities among BIPOC. I see the importance of first healing ourselves and our communities before tackling resistance with rigour – we can start with providing targeted social support. In the Mental and Social Health presentation, Shayna Skakoon-sparling talks about the importance and impact of social support on queer and trans communities – higher social support increases HIV/STI risk reduction behaviors, lowers anxiety and depression, and mitigates the effects of internalized homophobia. In Activism as Speculative Fiction: Making Change for The Future, Syrus Marcus Ware speaks about the inevitable growth and collapse of systems that make space for futures to rise. Untitled (being in my skin from east to west), 2021is a demonstration of the resilient body, and the embracing of metaphorical and physical skin. We are capable of manifesting our own agency and resisting elements that challenge us to create a future we want for ourselves – through days, weeks, years, and lifetimes.

Alger Liang (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist living, breathing, and learning on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam peoples. His works are a by-product of embodiment, reflection, and exploration and his approach uses the body as a tool to sense the situated world. He engages with themes such as: cultural identity, space, memory, and trauma. Alger is currently a fifth-year student-athlete at The University of British Columbia majoring in visual arts, and minoring in Asian Canadian and Asian migration studies.