Thank you for taking the time to read my writing. I am grateful for your thoughts, challenges and questions.

In October of 2020 I took a walk through my neighbourhood, mask on I passed by boarded-up storefronts and COVID-19 testing centres. As I walked I listened to CBC reporter Nahlad Ayed interview Todd Dufresne about his book The Democracy of Suffering: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, Philosophy in the Anthropence. In this interview, Dufresne offered that the climate crisis presents the opportunity to reassess current structures and rebuild.  I thought of activist and author Naomi Klein, who similarly writes about the opportunity for a  radical restructuring –  re-framing the climate crisis as a catalyst for change. Klein calls for a response to the climate emergency: one which sees the dismantlement of capitalism, the embracement of decolonization and the rebuilding of systems from an anti-oppressive and anti-racist framework. What both of these authors offer is hope in the face of overwhelming fear and a call to action for innovation, creativity and change. As the interview drew to a close, Dufresne offered a final, harrowing statement,  “The Anthropocene condition is our chance, maybe our last chance, to matter. We should take it”.

Within this blog I look forward to exploring this question of what actions we can take at this time – interrogating this question of how to “matter” and how we can ensure that anti-settler colonialism, anti-racism and human-centred design informs these actions.