Episode 130

Living In Between Cultures with Changemaker Justine Abigail Yu: Part 1

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Stories for communities in between

Justine Abigail Yu is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere.

She is an award-winning facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on national and local media outlets including the Globe & Mail, CTV National News, and the CBC. She was also named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021.

Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change.

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What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • Growing up in between cultures

  • Connecting the dots between local and global struggles

  • Why travel is an inherently political act

  • Expanding the idea of what activism looks like

  • How Justine holds multiple truths at the same time

  • How Vent Diagrams can help us with the complexity of the world

  • The origin of Turtle Island and the power of words

  • The practice of pleasure activism

“Many of us long for our homelands, our motherlands, and at the same time are incredibly grateful to live here in Canada, in North America, to have privileges that we may not have had, may not have back home, wherever that might be. How do we hold these two seemingly contradictory truths?”

— Justine Abigail Yu

Storytelling as Soft Landing

Check out our full interview on YouTube →

Living Hyphen

Justine is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere.

The work of Living Hyphen touches on different aspects of a multi-hyphenated diaspora through events, workshops, a podcast called Living Hyphen, and a print magazine. 

The print magazine features artists and writers from all across Canada hailing from over 30 ethnicities, religions, and Indigenous nations who explore various themes of this multi-hyphenated identity in a collection of poetry, prose, photography, and visual art.

Get 20% off of any issue of the Living Hyphen magazine with code GOINGPLACES at the Living Hyphen online store.

Learn more about Living Hyphen here.

Featured on the Show

Justine Abigail Yu

“Over the last year, we've seen this unprecedented solidarity movement for Palestinian liberation. And I've been connecting the dots between what's happening on the other side of the world and right here in our homelands because what's happening there is not far removed from colonization in North America.”

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