Mentors and change-agents: Youth-led social justice initiatives

Adama Kaba is a community educator born and raised in Guinea, West Africa, who has extensive professional experience in various learning spaces. Her work focuses on understanding Black girls’ schooling experiences and exploring intersectionality in non-formal community-based education programs in Tio’tia:ke (Montreal). Adama is currently pursuing a PhD in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University.

Magalie Quintal-Marineau holds a PhD in Human Geography from McGill University (2016). Since 2018, she is a Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and a member of the INRS–UQAT Joint Research Unit in Indigenous Studies. With over fifteen years of experience in Arctic social research, she has developed expertise in community-based and participatory methodologies that prioritize Inuit knowledge systems and community-defined research goals.

Her work is grounded in long-standing collaborations with Inuit organizations, including Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada and the Qarjuit Youth Council. Her research explores spaces of cultural encounter between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, with the aim of fostering dialogue and building bridges for mutual understanding.

Christine Qillasiq Lussier is an Inuk and Quebecer woman who recently graduated from her master’s degree at Concordia University in Inuit oral history. Her maternal ties are to Salluit, Nunavik, and she is affiliated to the Northern Village of Kuujjuaraapik, where she lived several years before moving to the south. Her paternal ties are to Tio’tià:ke/Montreal, where she later grew up. Her work looks at the implications of forced sedentarization and assimilation in the north and the socio-cultural colonial legacies that shape contemporary villages in the Arctic. Her upcoming work aims to promote community and arts-based methods to breathe new life into oral history archives with Inuit youths, elders, and artists. Lussier is also interested in topics relating to Inuit youths in foster care, structural violence, mental health, resurgence, advocacy, and languages.

Jessyarth Lopez Bonet (she/her) is an International student & poet from Orlando, Florida who is currently studying at Concordia University, majoring in Political Science.  Her choice of studying abroad is rooted in her curiosity of different cultures and wanting to see the world from a different point of view. Throughout her life she’s one to always be involved in community work & a leader to those around her. To her, moving to Montreal (Tio'tia:ke) has been a blessing. Here she aspires to continue her communal work and with the state of our current society get involved in social justice movements as well.

Mariam Untiveros Métellus (she/they) is a creative soul who lives through her art such as danse, songs, painting and so many others. Their purpose is to connect with the people presented to her in different walks of life. As a human wondering around this earth, they look for ways to learn from each lesson offered to her.