Nikki Sanchez
Nikki Sanchez
Nikki Sanchez holds a Masters degree in Indigenous Governance and is currently completing her Ph.D. on emerging visual media technology as it relates to Indigenous ontology for climate change mitigation strategies.
A Pipil and Irish/Scottish academic, Indigenous media maker and environmental educator, Nikki is a regular panelist on CBC radio’s the Early Edition and in 2021 she was selected as one of the HATCH 100’s influential change makers and collaborators, who cross-pollinate to accelerate solutions for positive impact and to HATCH A Better World.
As the former David Suzuki Foundation’s “Queen of Green” Nikki focused on environmental journalism, social and digital media to help drive sustainable solutions for a healthy planet. She also created content to bring more racial and gender inclusivity into the environmental movement.
An Indigenous media maker, Nikki’s 8-part documentary VICELAND series “RISE” focused on global Indigenous resurgence. RISE was debuted at Sundance in February 2017 and has received global critical acclaim, winning “best documentary” at the Canadian screen awards.
She is the creator and director of “Decolonize Together” a collective of Indigenous and black women who offer decolonial and anti-racism workshops and curriculum creation. Decolonize Together has been teaching and facilitating decolonization and anti-oppression training for universities, school boards, corporations, and NGOs.
Her TEDx presentation is entitled “Decolonization is for Everyone”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmxD-z1Y8GA
Nikki has been a wilderness guide and environmental educator in the Nuu-chah-nulth territory of Clayoquot Sound where she was mentored by Nuu-chah-nulth elders Tsahsiits and Qaamina Sam. She is a guest contributor for the DavidSuzuki.Org website, The Hundreds, Last Real Indians, Intercontinential Cry, Loose Lips Magazine, and ROAR Magazine. She on the BC Women’s Foundation Youth Council, as well as a board member for Sierra Club of BC, Load Bow and Photographer’s without Borders.
In 2020, she released her first book “Spirits of the Coast: Orcas in Science, Art and History” which became a best seller.
Please contact us to book Nikki Sanchez for your next event!
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Topics
- Decolonize Together: How to make the next generation proud
“This history is not your fault, but it is absolutely your responsibility.”
A history of colonization exists and persists all around us. Nikki discusses what colonization looks like and how it can be addressed through decolonization. An equitable and just future depends on the courage we show today. “Let’s make our grandchildren proud”.
- 10 ways to live sustainably in a time of climate change
We are living in environmentally urgent and uncertain times. The challenges we face are not only on our external environment but also on our internal wellbeing and mental health.
All of us can make a difference and this talk will offer 10 ways you can use your voice, your devices, your lifestyle choices or your time and talents to enact change.
- Gender Inequality and the 21st-century Womyn
How do you overcome a hyper-connected culture that objectifies and constantly minimizes women and non-gender conforming people?
By practicing self-care and radical self-love and acceptance, and dismantling the patriarchy one day at a time. As a survivor of sexualized violence, a disruptor in toxic masculinity and advocate for gender equity Nikki works to ensure the audiences understand that they cannot enact self-love without simultaneously dismantling gendered inequity.
- Orcas Whales, Intergenerational Resilience and Reconciling WorldviewsIn this keynote Nikki shares her journey in 2019 when she had the opportunity to work with biologists, historians, knowledge keepers, poets, artists and photographers to create an anthology of the Coastal Resident Orca Whales. Working across cultures, generations, knowledge paradigms, and narrating between Orca and humans, what unfolded for Nikki was a journey of learning to see and understand our current social and environmental climates from the perspective of the Orca. Nearly two years, multiple awards, and a bestselling book later, she shares her insights on the multitude of ways the process of colonization irrevocably changed the lives of both the Coastal Resident Orcas and Indigenous peoples of the coast. Over a hundred years later, we are still experiencing those impacts and developing emergent strategies to survive and thrive. Nikki shares the lessons learned from looking at the story of colonization from the Orcas perspective.