Decolonizing Veganism
The Urgency of Solidarity and the Fight for Collective Liberation
This panel brings together advocates from marginalized and racialized communities to examine how colonial frameworks, white saviorism, and single-issue veganism have shaped the global animal rights movement, often silencing local voices and reinforcing systemic oppression.
Panelists will discuss the harms of replicating Western campaigns, the importance of culturally specific interventions, and how vegan capitalism erases the radical roots of our movement.
At its core, this conversation emphasizes solidarity: how advocating for our fellow animals is in alignment with broader struggles for racial, social, and environmental justice, and why building cross-movement alliances is essential for dismantling oppression and achieving collective liberation for all beings.
Panelists:
Christopher Sebastian
Journalist and lecturer
Speaker
(he/him)
@the_christopher_sebastian
About: Christopher Sebastian is a journalist and lecturer in the school of Journalism, Media Studies and Visual Arts at Anglo-American University. He writes about food, media, pop culture, politics and animals.
Yvette Baker
Activist and writer
(she/her)
Instagram:
@collectiveabolition
About: Living for total liberation, Yvette moves through the world as a writer, independent researcher, social critic, and proud rat lady, guided by an Afro-Indigenous life force that honors the interconnectedness of all beings. She serves as the Director of Activism and Community Impact at APEX Advocacy, a Black-led animal rights organization dedicated to empowering Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to reclaim their voices and leadership in animal advocacy. Her work and life are rooted in a shared accountability to all relations—building with comrades, listening to the wisdom of beyond-human kin, and unlearning colonial scripts that sever us from each other.
Yvette holds space for the messy, scared work of liberation: the devastating falterings, the humbling growth, and the dance of transformation. She moves with the understanding that liberation is not a destination but a practice—a daily commitment to resistance, collective care, and the honoring of ancestral and future kin.
Haru
Hitchhiker
Speaker
(he/him)
@harulev
About: Haru is a nomadic filmmaker, writer, and rapper dedicated to the animal liberation movement.
By being on the road as transgender-queer, houseless and a "foreigner" to embody both oppression and resistance, he constantly creates discomfort for any hierarchical social structure that sustains the current violent system.
Aim Pichayapohn Ritkampee
Animal justice advocate
(she/her)
@vegan.aim
About: Aim is a Thai animal justice advocate with a background in Social and Cultural Psychology. Her activism is rooted in a culturally specific approach through an intersectional lens. She currently utilizes social media platforms to educate and inspire Thai communities to engage with animal justice issues.
Maureen P. Medina
Poet and activist
Speaker
(she/they)
@bearwitness.and
@leave__in__peace
@slaughter_ends_with_us
About: Maureen is the author of My Fears Out Loud, her debut poetry collection. Her movement is informed by her belief that all oppression - and therefore, all liberation - is connected. She invites us to bear witness to ourselves and the world at large in order to heal individually and collectively. "No one is free until all of us are free." - inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer.
