Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (Researchers/Artists Collective)
Profiles created by GTDF EIs
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (aka Vanessa Andreotti) Vanessa is GTDF’s own powerhouse visionary, scientartist and currently on a well-deserved break from public engagements to focus on research and development for the Undergrowth and on her own and her family’s health and wellbeing. Vanessa is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria and a former Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequality, and Global Change. Vanessa’s neurodivergence, ceremonial training, and knack for spotting the patterns and hit the nerves that most overlook make her the motherboard of GTDF’s collective creativity.
Cash Ahenakew is a wise and hilarious paradox in human form—a reluctant Elder who keeps unintentionally finding himself in the exact situations an Elder is supposed to handle. A member of Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation and a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples’ Well-being, Cash spends his days untangling the impossible knots at the interface of Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges, pedagogy, and ceremony. Whether he’s engaged in ceremony, offering a deep critique of colonial systems, or renaming his treadmill “The Walker”, his presence invites us to sit with life’s strange, tangled beauty. Cash’s signature line, “Strange, strange world… it’s rigged,” is as much a mantra as it is a truth-telling mic drop. GTDF is lucky to have him as a guide who walks the fine line between spiritual wisdom and mischief, always ready to remind us that even in a rigged world, there’s room to walk in beauty.
Bill Calhoun (Awo Fatokun) Bill’s life journey winds through movements and disciplines that most only read about. From his time with the Black Panthers to his work as an antitrust lawyer and Franciscan seminarist, Bill brings a rare, multifaceted perspective. With over 30 years coordinating study abroad programs, he’s taught Ivy Leaguers from the U.S. to learn directly from Brazil’s Indigenous, peasant, and favela communities— he created a decolonial curriculum before decolonization was a buzzword. As an Elder of IFA/Yoruba, Awo Fatokun (his ceremonial name) carries the deep spiritual wisdom of his lineage, bringing a grounded, expansive understanding of tradition, resilience, and relationality. He weaves this spiritual insight with his lived experience, offering teachings that invite others to step beyond Western paradigms and engage with the world through a lens of entanglement and accountability.
Rene Susa is GTDF’s very own Swiss pocket knife in human form. Need someone to drive a tractor, manage humannure, cook for a crowd, brew biodynamic wine, deal with a dead coyote, dry an eagle wing, assess you for counterindications in entheogenic journeys, accompanying you to the hospital, grow tomatoes, or identify that mysterious fungi sprouting by your door or pesto jar? Rene’s your go-to for all that and more. If your optimism ever needs a bit of grounding, Rene is an unintentional master of the “depression pill”—his dark humor is so organic, he doesn’t even realize he’s dispensing it. A gifted social cartographer with a PhD in Education, Rene brings a background in anthropology and international relations, along with years of experience in the European NGO sector focused on global education (before being “rescued” by the GTDF tugboat).
Sharon Stein Sharon doesn’t just decode complexity—she invites you to wade into it with curiosity, humility, and maybe a cup of tea. A white-settler from the US, Sharon is the author of Unsettling the University and a professor of Climate Complexity and Coloniality at UBC. But don’t mistake her for just an academic powerhouse. Sharon is also an apprentice of relational stewardship, weaving decolonial ethics, intergenerational accountability, and the art of becoming a “good elder” into everything she does. She’s the kind of person who can balance a critical analysis of colonial harm with a mischievous nudge to explore your own complicity—often served with a side of millennial dark humor and a knowing grin. Sharon helps the GTDF channel its collective voice into impactful publications, frameworks, and workshops, all while staying grounded in the messy, tangled work of repairing relationships with each other and the Land.
Azul (Carolina) Duque Azul is GTDF’s improviser-in-residence, born and raised in Colombia. Equally at home crafting a poetic inquiry or building a color-coded spreadsheet, they are an artist by instinct, an organizer by necessity, and a rigorous researcher in the funniest way possible. Need someone to speak at a conference, host an embodied workshop, or walk alongside you in grief ceremonies? Azul’s your go-to. Just don’t expect it to be perfect—they’ll be the first to laugh at themselves when things inevitably go sideways. With a master’s in Society, Culture, and Politics in Education from UBC, a musical album to their name, and her training as a death doula, and clown, Azul’s gift lies in their ability to hold both the sublime and the ridiculous. The GTDF collective holds a voucher to call on their musical medicine when needed, a role they take with equal parts sass and humility.
Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti Dance teacher, certified Warm Data Lab facilitator, and designated Gen Z reality-check, Giovanna has been involuntarily steeped in depth education since in-utero (courtesy of her mother, Vanessa). Once the family’s most vocal skeptic of GTDF, she has become a bridge between her generation’s pulse and the GTDF’s ethos, making her perspective both relatable, multi-layered and essential. Giovanna holds a Bachelor in Psychology from UBC, a postgraduate certificate in Climate Psychology and currently coordinates an inquiry that maps pedagogical practices addressing complexity, complicity, collapse, and accountability. Trust Giovanna to bring fresh energy—and maybe a bit of well-timed eye-rolling—to the conversation.
Chief Ninawa Huni Kui Former president of the Federation of the Huni Kui People of Acre and current president of Institute Inu, brings a powerful voice grounded in Indigenous sovereignty and cultural resilience. As a dedicated guardian of the Amazon biome, Chief Ninawa is a global advocate against false climate solutions to the climate and biodiversity catastrophes, challenging the CO2lonialism embedded in green transitions and climate mitigation strategies. His leadership calls for genuine approaches to ecological and cultural stewardship—ones that honor relational sciences and technologies and resist the colonial dynamics often hidden within mainstream climate approaches.
Dani d’Emilia (they/them) is a weaver of Radical Tenderness, Metabolic Intimacy, Playful Rigor and the Art of (Un)becoming. Known for creating spaces where vulnerability meets resilience and queer decolonial sensibilities come alive, Dani is the one to call if you’re ready to dive deep into embodied senses and sensibilities—or if you need a nudge (gentle, yet uncompromising) toward collective healing. With over two decades of experience breaking down boundaries between performance and pedagogy, with Dani you can expect transformative encounters that mix art and activism with a dash of humor and a generous dose of honesty— lovingly coaxing you out of your comfort zone on every level: cognitive, affective, relational, and physical. When not crafting explicit political-affective alchemy, Dani can be found up – or waaaay down – in their watery feels, tending to relational ecologies, trying to learn to listen more deeply to non human wisdoms, and diving into the unnameable pains and pleasures of the unknown.
Camilla Cardoso is one of GTDF’s relationship weavers, known for bringing care, clarity, strategy, and the occasional spreadsheet to the complexities of collaboration. Whether navigating relationships with Indigenous researchers, funders, and academic institutions, coordinating research journeys to the Amazon, or translating GTDF’s pedagogy into educational programs, Camilla approaches her work with intention and care, ensuring the collective stays grounded and moving. A co-founder of Terra Adentro and long-time GTDF collaborator, she moves fluidly between cultural and contextual translation, occasional facilitation, and speaking on behalf of the collective in diverse contexts. From supporting Indigenous-led initiatives in Brazil to pushing the boundaries of academia at UBC and UVic, where she coordinates the Facing Human Wrongs courses, Camilla holds space for messy realities while keeping GTDF connected. Amidst all this, she is a proud mom to four-year-old Nara, whose wisdom reminds her daily of what really matters—while occasionally driving her mom crazy and putting strict limits on her work time.
Dino Siwek is a Brazilian educator and anthropologist, chronic overthinker, and aspiring practitioner of unlearning colonial baggage—starting with his own. His work sits at the chaotic crossroads of the climate emergency, systemic accountability, and the delicate art of not making things worse. A member of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures collective, he spends his days juggling settlers’ responsibilities, especially when they show up in spaces that think they’re already doing the “right thing,” like the arts or philanthropy sectors. From food sovereignty and water security to territorial protection, Dino stumbles through these collaborations with the coordination skills of someone trying to herd cats on roller skates. Whether fostering ethical engagement with Indigenous communities or challenging performative climate solutions, Dino’s superpower is showing up, staying curious, and reminding everyone that justice work is messy, awkward, and worth every tumble.
Kyra Royo Fay is a multi-undisciplinary artist, facilitator, and unapologetic over-thinker who somehow turns existential spirals into creative fuel. Born and raised by the waters of Indonesia, this Filipina-American wanderer has made a lifelong hobby of questioning everything—except her love for friends, naps, and bodies of water. Guided by questions of multiplicity, liminality, and Kyra’s practice is a messy love letter to the in-between. Whether facilitating community workshops, mulling over radical truth-telling, or accidentally double-booking her calendar, she works with a reverence for connection and a belief that beauty lives in the awkward and unresolved. She’s deeply committed to water as connective tissue and land as kin. When not attempting to make “generative dissonance” sound more like a lifestyle choice than a personal flaw, Kyra can often be found by the nearest body of water, pondering life’s big questions and occasionally answering them with snacks.
Devin Bokaer is a poet and recovering framework-development addict who plays well with others and has difficulty keeping new ideas to himself. If enthusiasm were a sport, Devin would be in perpetual training for some kind of “yes-and” ultra-marathon. He moves with the tenacity of a tortoise, the tender irreverence of a fungi-whisperer, and the joie-de-vivre of an upbeat 1980s cartoon character. Devin passionately inquires and senses into the invisible choreographic overlaps between dancing with paradoxes, addiction recovery, and relationally accountable spiritual practice. With roots in music, theater, qigong, social work, and education, he is ever-curious how he might open more widely and deeply to being woven. Devin is truly grateful to his family, to the collective, and to all his other relations for their ever-present teachings.
Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures 