bio
i am romi, a student and education worker who uses artistic experimentation and collective creation towards learning for justice in community settings.
i grew up in Tkaronto in occupied haudenosaunee and anishinaabe lands, colonially known as canada. currently, i reside in Montreal Tiohtià:ke Mooniyany, Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territory. i am queer non-binary and use they-them. I am currently studying law at the university of mcgill.
i work across many mediums with an aim at furthering justice initiatives in relation with those i care for. my work endeavors to create meaningful objects in a time of material disposability, valuing impermanence, biodegradability, cyclical existence and disexistence. my learning ethic lies within relationships as conveyors of creative teachings; each of my artistic techniques come from relations with teachers and harvest sites committed to generating life.
in 2024, i studied with various individual and community teachers here in Rabinal. there, i taughtat and support a land- and justice-based education centre for highschool youth, in a Maya Achi community. my work here is bracketed by a 20-year ongoing relationship with grassroots maritimes (Mi'kma'ki) network breaking the silence.
previously, my education and lived experience has occured in predominantly western and settler-colonial settings. i studied latin american studies at the university of british columbia on musqueam territory, and global political institutions at sciences po university in france. during my stay in musqueam, tsleil-waututh and squamish territory, i worked and learned with Elder Jim Leyden and the Mountain Protectors at burnaby mountain, fighting the transmountain pipeline construction. there, i also worked at fresh air learning and soaring eagle forest schools, connecting youth with land with justice at the centre.
in my youth, i studied in a fully subsidized international highschool, offering a full scholarship to every member of our global student body. i am grateful for pearson united world college for instilling a toolkit for interculturality to my curiosity of learning, creativity, and to building relations.
i am also connected to tema-augama anishinaabe lands, where i spent many summer seasons at wanapitei canoe tripping camp as a child. as an adult, i returned for three years to build a land-based art program there, with an aim to begin decolonizing my canoe expeditions camp and community.
in my art, i strive to bring attention to the creation of justice in practice. as i align my path to the value of coexistence, harmony with land, and anti-imperialism, much is created.
this is the home for where i will share that which grows on this journey.
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