Volunteer Profile: Melodie Bastien
Melodie is a human rights advocate who resides in Lethbridge. She is very active in the community and focuses on issues related to racism and discrimination, She also has assisted in with cases involving child welfare, justice, education and policing.
What part of the province do you live in?
Southwest Alberta in Lethbridge.
How and why did you first get involved with JHC (the community response initiative)?:
I got involved with JHC about 3.5 years ago during the first year of the Indigenous social work program. More specifically, during my practicum. I had decided to do some work around racism and discrimination. As an indigenous person, you put your blinders on and not pay attention to racism because it happens on a daily basis. I created the White Buffalo Trailblazer and started having information sessions.Then, I started making contact with the JHC team and had the team come down to make presentations of human rights, policing, racism, discrimination and advocating in the medical sect of the province. I also attended the gatherings of stride advocates to be trained in Lethbridge and assisted in creation of the Stage Clan. I applied to be on the Alberta anti-racism advisory committee for the Alberta government. I have been on this committee for 2 years now.
What is your current role within JHC?:
I am a stride advocate in Lethbridge. In this role, I connect people with available resources depending on their needs For example, I work with the whole JHC team and other advocates to assist people submit human rights complaints. In addition, I help organise the stride advocacy clinics in Lethbridge twice a year.
What are your (volunteer) activities and what do they involve?:
I help set up information sessions in communities within SW Alberta that have to do with racism and discrimination. I have developed a lot of contacts with different community establishments that deal with these topics. E.g community boards, RCMP, City of Lethbridge. I am always open to working with various organizations. Since COVID hit and workshops moved online, it has increased the work as more people have been contacting me personally with human rights complaints.
How long have you been a part of the community response initiative?
3.5 years
What's it like to be a volunteer for this cause?
Personally it is a very rewarding and willingfull way to give back to the community. It is also a way to help a younger generation have a voice and be stronger. One of the accomplishments with this work is that I was asked to testify in Alberta court on the case of a young Indigenous man. The judge ruled in his favour, acknowledged racism and noted the need to restructure the system.
What has surprised you most about working on this community initiative?
How much I have had my blinders on to racism and discrimination and how easy it is to normalize it. Everything- policies, procedures and legislatures are from a colonial point of view. Even the acts and treaties portray indigenous people as less than. The systems in place create hierarchy and put the races in a pecking order. And we have accepted that! In some ways we see that so many colonial thoughts have been normalized because they are so mainstream.
Are there any learnings/ challenges you have experienced through this work?
My biggest challenge is getting people to see racism. Trying to find the words to describe it to dominant society. It's really difficult to find a way. However, I don't like to give up, I like to find different ways to show people. I am not aggressive with my approaches although I am passionate.I always try to remain open minded to different points of views (even those I do not agree with).
Have you got any additional comments?:
I hope that more people will open up their minds to see that we need to treat each other the same. We need to start accepting each other for who we are and practice and embrace multiculturalism.