Climate Plus Challenge and UNSDG present:
UNSDG Week kick off with
Gitxsan climate justice expert Shay Lynn Sampson
March 6, 11:00am-2:00pm, Surrey Conference Centre and online
Shay lynn Sampson is a Gitxsan Land Defender from the Lax Gibuu (Wolf Clan) and Wilp Spookw. She started organizing for climate justice and Indigenous rights and sovereignty while living on Lekwungen territory, and was involved in the 2020 occupation of the BC legislature in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en. Since then they have moved back north to be on Wet’suwet’en Yintah, they have lived at the Gidimt’en Checkpoint alongside the Hereditary Chiefs opposing the Coastal GasLink Pipeline.
She was one of the dozens people arrested during the 2021 militarized raids on Coyote Camp, following a 56 day reoccupation of the CGL drill pad site.
Lunch will be provided during the event.
A Background on the Climate Plus Challenge (C+C):
The Climate+ Challenge is the brainchild of Ellen Pond and is operated by a team of KPU faculty members and administrators. It’s a KPU-wide initiative that engages everyone in learning about climate change, through an empathetic and solutions-oriented lens. Everyone of us can take action to stop accelerated climate change, and growing social inequities. Every discipline, and every student, can contribute to a better understanding of the challenges, and employ critical and creative thinking, testing and innovation to find solutions.
Our goal is to get more people at KPU talking, learning, thinking about and finding solutions to the climate emergency, and various climate-related challenges. The more we talk about this, the more capacity we build to meet the upcoming challenges. This year is a pilot of what we hope will become a permanent part of KPU’s sustainability vision, and our teaching and learning at the university.
A Background on the UNSDG:
Info about SDG Week Canada (I think you have this in your head as Earth Week) to share with potential speakers: SDG Week Canada is a national collaboration from March 6-10, 2023 featuring workshops, panels, and other interactive programming to increase awareness of and engagement with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on university and college campuses.
This includes:
- Raising awareness around SDGs through interdisciplinary teaching and learning opportunities
- Institutionalizing the SDGs in campus operations, strategic planning, instruction and research
- Creating a collaborative, cross disciplinary environment for institutions to advance SDGs
- Incorporate guiding values from SDG into conversations to inform solutions
