February 20, 2025
THE BLACK AND INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY PROGRAM (BIS) of Indigenous Youth Roots (IYR), a national, Indigenous, youth-led organization, will take place in Toronto from the last week of March to the first week of May 2025.
From an Instagram post from the Montreal- and Toronto-based volunteer, youth-led organization Rising from Our Roots:
Through six sessions of weekly online meetings, participants will be given the opportunity to take part in cultural-based workshops such as beading, traditional dance, and plant medicines alongside educational sessions that delve into Black and Indigenous history and resistance.
This will culminate in the creation of a collaborative zine, where youth will be guided to create and submit a work in a medium of their choice reflecting themes of joy and healing informed by their time in the program.
Each youth will receive a $500 honoraria following the completion of the program and will be invited to an in-person gathering in June 2025.
BIS is one of IYR’s Solidarity Programs, which “offer a communal space for Indigenous, Black, and Settlers of Colour youth to share their individual connections to their homelands, experience wellness activities and self-care strategies to navigate the complexities of place-based relationships and responsibilities”. After a coast-to-coast program of community consultation sessions, Pathways to Black & Indigenous Solidarity: Community Consultation Sessions Report was released in March 2024 to report on key findings.
For Black History Month in 2025, IYR is publicizing the work of ASALH, The Founders of Black History Month.
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We acknowledge that the land on which we work is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.