Freya Milne Memorial Award

Annilea Purser; Political Science; MA Candidate (2023)

Annilea will organize a story-writing workshop for newcomer and refugee youth in collaboration with Story Studio, a literacy-based community organization that provides storytelling and writing workshops to youth in the region. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a creative and welcoming space for youth to share their personal stories on their own terms and engage with other youth who would like to do the same.

Cameron Chevrier; Sociology; MA Candidate (2023)

Cameron organized an art-based linocut workshop for youth in collaboration with the Victoria Youth Empowerment Society, a community organization that provides support for at-risk youth and their families. In this workshop, youth will learn about the diverse cultural, linguistic, and religious history of linocut printing. Youth will also participate in hands-on practice where they can carve and print their own linoleum blocks to make patches and customized clothing. This workshop creates a welcoming environment for youth from diverse backgrounds to meet one another and explore their artistic abilities through a historical art form.

Mattie Walker; Social Dimensions of Health; PhD Candidate (2023)

Mattie organized a series of workshops for trans and gender-diverse youth to engage in collaborative visual art-making focused on safety, joy, and resilience in collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Victoria Capitol Region, a community organization that provides community-based mentoring to youth. These workshops provide trans and gender-diverse youth with the opportunity to build local community and create art that focuses on experiences of joy and safety as a form of resistance and activism.

Paul Vincent; Social Work, Indigenous Specialization; MSW (2021)

Paul organized art-based story-telling events to discuss the concerns of the Parnasimautik community about child removal by the Director of Youth Protection in Nunavik, Quebec. Participants were Inuit girls who were all formerly in care of the youth protection system. It was important that story-telling was used to explore youth voices and experiences, as the Inuit have traditionally been an oral-based culture. In addition, this project creates resources to support youth and community well-being.

Luke Kernan; Anthropology; PhD Candidate (2019)

Luke organized workshops to support youth participating in the poetry event, UNQUIET MINDS, that aims to present unique concerns, opinions and ideas that youth have around mental health, in their own words.  Luke was able to provide youth with a safe space to connect with local poets and engage in discussions on mental health issues in their community. This poetry event provides youth avenues to process one’s emotions, develop leadership and creativity skills, and form lasting peer bonds with other youth poets.  

Emily Comeau; Linguistics, MA student in Language Revitalization (2016)

Emily engaged in face-to-face meetings with young moms on the integration of Indigenous language learning in child care settings. In discussions of language revitalization, pedagogy, and decolonization, it is important that language not only be used as an object of study, but that it also be situated in its cultural and geographical roots. In this way, language programming is not just learning about vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation but is also about the communities that speak these languages -- their stories, their practices, and their relationships. Emily situated her project in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Hagestedt; Anthropology, PhD Candidate in Visual Anthropology and Materiality (2015)

Betsy pursued research in Ecuador with La Confederaciόn de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE), which seeks to represent indigenous communities across Ecuador. Betsy asked indigenous youth involved with CONAIE about their perceptions of the representational practices of CONAIE, to explore the organization’s inclusivity in representing the many indigenous groups and communities from across the country. She used interviews and a photovoice project to allow the youth to communicate their experience through visual methods on a forum.

Marion Selfridge; Social Dimensions of Health, PhD Candidate (2014)

Marion created a youth advisory group for her doctoral work. The group, all youth with experience of living on the streets and losing many important people in their lives, came together to help advise Marion about the questions she asked her participants and to think through what participants shared with her from their own lived experiences. Several of the advisory group were instrumental in creating heART space, a month-long pop up collaborative art show around overdose.

Sarah Wright Cardinal; Curriculum and Instruction, PhD Candidate

Sarah organized an arts-based event where former youth in care interacted with current youth in care to celebrate their resilience and make connections in a culturally welcoming space where artistic expression is encouraged. Resources and information helpful to youth in care were also made available. Held in May 2014, this event led up to Youth in Care Week. The focus on the arts provided a medium for participants to express themselves, primarily in regard to their experiences and identity as youth in care.