What Does Anti-Racism and Decolonization Work Look Like? A Reflection of my Internship with CDLI

By Noor Abdulbaki

Growing up, I was raised to believe that coincidences don’t exist and that everything happens for a reason. In the past couple of months, I was laid off from my dream job and graduated during a pandemic. I thought I was down on my luck, but all these incidents would lead me to working at CDLI as the Communications and Community Development Officer through the Canada Summer Jobs Program. In this role, I gained experience working in anti-racism and decolonization. So, what does this work look like? 

I assisted in creating social media content and blog posts from CDLI’s interviews with activists, community members, academics, students and more. I learned about their journey through anti-racism and decolonization work. I am most proud of building a database of anti-racism and decolonization resources through Airtable for all to access. You can access the database here: https://www.calgarycdli.ca/antiracism-and-decolonization. Lastly, I learned about organizing and engagement through CDLI’s weekly training and monthly Meet Ups. If you’re interested in learning about community development and initiatives, I would recommend checking it out. 

Working at CDLI was a once in a lifetime experience because of the incredibly high performing team. I was surprised by how collaborative our four-person team was as we all worked remotely and only met virtually once a week. Not only was I motivated to go above and beyond I had the opportunity to be my most authentic self at work. Our team felt like we could be vulnerable with each other as we engaged in anti-racism and decolonization work. I had the privilege to learn from such a brilliant and motivated team. It is incredibly powerful to do work that aligns with your values with a team that cares about you. 

Thank you, Evert, for always sharing new ideas and editing so many tweets, captions and blog posts. Thank you, Lionel, for your hilarious jokes and insights. Thank you, Amanda, for your positive encouragement, thoughtfulness, and trust.