In this issue: AGM, Executive Director Announcement, and It's a Wrap for Public Workshops

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We're so excited to announce our new Executive Director!

Please join us in welcoming Elli Dehnavi to her new role as Executive Director with the Centre for Race and Culture.

Holding a PhD in Cultural Studies, Elli Dehnavi is a university teacher, storyteller, and public educator, who has has been actively engaged in the community to raise awareness about interpersonal and systemic discrimination. She has developed adult education resources, coordinated training programs, and managed research and community-base projects. Elli joined CFRAC in 2017 as a Project Consultant and coordinated two main projects: Race and Respect, and Refugee Awareness Alberta. She then served as our Senior Consultant for a year and supervised the work of other researchers and consultants. Elli has designed and delivered courses and educational workshops on intercultural communication, EDI, Implicit Bias, Creating Inclusive Communities, and gender equity.

Now in her new role as the Executive Director, Elli is committed to building equitable relationships in line with CFRAC’s vision and mission.

Past Events and Workshops

It's been a productive month and we wanted to share some of the work we've been up to!

We were happy to host the sold out Refugee Awareness Alberta Workshop on June 12! Stay tuned for more workshops to come in the Fall.

Thanks to the generous support of REACH Edmonton, we were able to have productive and engaging conversations about refugees and other migrants in Alberta.

We also wrapped up our two-session Policy Through an Inclusion Lens Workshop on June 26! Participants from various sectors and organizations participated in thoughtfully engaging Policy practice thanks to the brilliant facilitation of Ashima Sumaru-Jurf and Roxanne Felix-Mah. Consider joining us next time for one of our engaging workshops!

View All Workshops

Save the date!

Annual General Meeting:

July 9th, 2019 || McCauley School || 7 PM

Join us on Tuesday July 9th to learn more about what we have achieved over the last year, and be a part of our plans for the coming year.

Memberships and Voting

Please ensure that you hold a current membership so that you can be included in voting decisions at the AGM. Visit our website to obtain your membership or email CFRAC to clarify your status.

Award Winning Indigenous Author Alicia Elliott talks about writing Indigenous stories

In this interview with ROOM Magazine editor Chelene Knight, award winning Tuscarora writer Alicia Elliott, whose recent book A Mind Spread Out on the Ground continues to top best-selling lists, chats " about what it’s like being an Indigenous writer in the CanLit world, and her thoughts on authenticity when telling an experience that isn’t your own". Especially in light of the National Report on MMIWG2S, this piece is helpful to keep in mind when engaging in conversations around Indigenous representation and story telling.

From the piece: "When you are talking about encouraging writers who are white and middle class to make their work more interesting by using other cultures as window dressing to make their stories more spicy—that’s fetishism. That’s not approaching a culture in a way that shows that you respect it and that you are doing this from a good place. I honestly believe you should be asking yourself “why am I doing this?” And if the answer is “I want to” and you don’t have anything more...I don’t think that’s good enough"

Read the interview here.

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Centre for Race and Culture · 9538 - 107 Ave NW · Edmonton, Alberta T5H 0T7 · Canada