Behind the Scenes at Bakau

A lot goes on at this small company and sometimes we’re so busy strategizing for change that we forget to introduce ourselves! In this series, we’re inviting you to meet our amazing team and learn about what drives them in their passion for justice.

Katya Potapova

Operations Director

Katya Potapova is a settler to Turtle Island from Yakutsk. Her hometown is thought to be the coldest city on Earth (at least when major cities are considered) but she likes to say that it’s a home to people with the warmest hearts. Ever since her move to so-called Vancouver in 2014, she has been joking that she has relocated from a place of permanent frost to a place of permanent rain but she truly loves it here, and feels deeply grateful to live on the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh lands.

Katya is striving to live her life in service of people who like her long for community, belonging and meaning. She dreams of the world that centres healing, justice, joy, rest, and collective liberation, and she knows that this world is possible. Her pursuit of this dream led her to many amazing places and projects—prior to Bakau she has worked in event production, fundraising, hospitality and communications—all of which made her realize that she feels her best when she is collaborating and/or supporting others. Katya also spends a lot of her time scheming and mobilizing for climate action.

Katya is an INFJ, Enneagram 2 & Pisces in both Moon and Sun. In other words, just a big softy.

Katya loves:

• Capybaras

• Creating Spotify playlists

• Crocheting

• Slowing down in nature

5 Big Questions

WHO, WHAT OR WHERE IS HOME FOR YOU?

Creating connections, being a part of a collective, belonging to a community, having my people is what brings meaning to my life, and so home to me is where my family and my chosen family are.

WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO LAND AND WATER?

I was raised respecting the spirits of land and water, in my culture it looks like asking for permission before entering a forest, feeding fire and asking for a blessing before having a meal, giving gifts to a river before swimming or fishing. Only recently I learned that it is called animism and only when I moved away from my home, I realized that it’s not something that everyone does. I am deeply grateful that many pieces of my native culture remained intact despite centuries of colonization, russification and urbanization.

Growing up by the river in the place that is located on permafrost, I was surrounded by different shapes of water quite literally — maybe that is why I feel the most myself when I am being held by water.

Foraging and hunting to this day is a way of living for my people back home; that the land gives only if you give back is deeply ingrained in me and I stand in solidarity with all the Indigenous people around the world whose way of being cultivates a livable future, especially for people of the lands that I currently live on which are the unceded and stolen lands of xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

WHAT IS A PIECE OF ART, LITERATURE, FILM, OR MUSIC THAT CHANGED YOU IN SOME WAY?

It’s silly to admit but watching early 2000s music videos on MTV after school before my parents come back home and stealing my older sister’s CDs of American pop girlies like Britney and Xtina has introduced me to learning English better than any textbook filled with grammar lessons. To this day I remember calling the local radio station asking to put Don’t Speak by No Doubt on and trying to write lyrics down in my notebook. Oh, the world before high-speed internet!

I know that English is often limited in its expression but music made me fall in love with it, and sometimes it blows my mind that I, a girl from the middle of nowhere in the subarctic of Russia, is able to communicate my thoughts and feelings to so many people around the world. It’s quite cool, isn't it?

WHAT DOES A POST-LIBERATION WORLD LOOK LIKE TO YOU?

It feels like the first day of summer vacation after a school year is over when you are a kid. You are full of hope and anticipation for fun days ahead that are filled with love, joy, adventure, good food, plenty of time to be bored, some silly shenanigans with friends, and best of all feels endless.

I know it may not be the best or most relatable example but the feeling of excitement for tomorrow is what is missing for me the most in the world we’re living in right now, having to actively practice radical hope is exhausting sometimes. A post-liberation world in my imagination is kind and gives everyone space to be joyful and excited about being alive.

TELL US ABOUT A MOMENT OR PROJECT AT BAKAU THAT FELT INSPIRING OR EXCITING.

Working on the Confronting Anti-Asian Racism online course with team members who also identify as Asian has been deeply meaningful for me. Being held by each other as we navigate the challenging subject matter is something that not only inspires me to be a better person and teammate but also something that makes me beyond grateful for people I work with and the trust we cultivated together.

In a world where you are asked to mask your true self to show up to work, I do not take it lightly that I have a privilege to be the most authentic self and feel safe doing it.