The accessible collection includes essays from experts on the Bakau team and fillable prompts 

Many Canadians are looking back on the past 12 months in search of lessons to take with them into the next year. Some of those lessons, documented carefully by BIPOC writers, are available in Bakau Consulting’s new e-book, What We’ve Learned: A Year Fighting White Supremacy in a Pandemic.

Fighting white supremacy is an ongoing, lifelong process, but the team at Bakau Consulting helps organizations take it on one step at a time. Bakau Consulting is an equity, inclusion, and anti-racism company that helps leaders, organizers, activists, and change-makers work from an optimistic and liberation-focused lens. 

The book covers topics ranging from fatphobia as a public health crisis to processing grief at work and parenting during the pandemic. But those are just a few of the many areas explored throughout its approximate 100 pages, which are full of easy-to-read essays by people of colour with lived experience and invaluable expertise. 

“I hope the book kind of distills some of that information, boils it down,” says Cicely Belle Blain, the founder and CEO of Bakau Consulting. “Most of the essays are 1,000 to 1,500 words because we didn’t want anything to be too overwhelming.” 

What We’ve Learned combines evidence-based research and tangible takeaways with interactive prompts and reflective questions. The sources are also hyperlinked throughout to encourage further research.

Belle Blain says the book is a “really exciting” step forward for the company, particularly following its recent rebrand. Blain opens the book with these profound recollections: 

“Novel virus aside, the pandemic exposed more old wounds than it did new ones. Long-ignored (or intentionally silenced) injustices were spotlighted in a time of collective rage. The mass mobilization in solidarity with Black Lives Matter after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor was not coincidental. Those who had been able to hide in the comfort of normalcy and stability became galvanized into action.” 

Making the book available online also gives folks without organizational budgets a way to learn from Bakau Consulting. It’s one of many accessible avenues for the general public to be able to interact with their work, including social media, events, workshops, and more. 

On a phone call with Loose Lips in May, Belle Blain noted that the general public had to think about accessibility for the first time this year. It’s important to apply those learnings moving forward so the progress isn’t lost, they say.

“Understanding what it means to fight white supremacy can initially be a really terrifying and intimidating thought, but once you get into it you realize it’s being broken down in terms of, ‘How does that show up in how we see other people’s bodies? How does capitalism inform how we set boundaries? How does it shape how we interact with neurodivergent folks and how does it shape how we parent and view parents?’” says Belle Blain. 

“My hope is that it does a good job of … breaking things into those more bite-sized pieces.”

Bakau Consulting is rolling out a three-month facilitation program in the fall for anyone interested in training their employees to be more anti-oppressive at work. 

Proceeds from What We’ve Learned made on or before May 20, 2021 went to the Red Condor Collective in Columbia, and further donations to their cause can be made online. To learn more about Bakau Consulting and purchase their e-book, visit their website.