SERISHA IYAR

CANADA, SOUTH AFRICA, 26

Project: Leading in Colour
Pronouns: She/Her

As a South African, Serisha draws from the teachings of the Anti-Apartheid movement alongside liberation and womanist theologies. She founded Leading in Colour, a community organization exclusively by, and for, racialized youth under the age of 30. Their goal is to train young leaders in activism-based skills that they can use to advocate for themselves and their communities through peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. 

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How did systemic racism and inequity lead to the founding of Leading in Colour?

We were born out of the struggle for anti-racist kinship. After experiencing the violence of white supremacy within activist spaces, we determined that the only way to combat racism being disguised as performative allyship, and the inherent white saviorism at play within advocacy groups, was to create spaces where racialized communities and youth, in particular, could learn from one another. Our goal is to center the lived experiences and expertise of racialized youth by highlighting their leadership in unlearning internalized oppressions and empowering them to bring decolonization practices to their families through intergenerational education at home.

“Intersectionality is one of the foundational values of our work and is also inherent to who we are as a team.”

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