Melina Laboucan-Massimo

Melina Laboucan-Massimo (born 1981) is a climate justice and Indigenous rights advocate from the Lubicon Cree community of Little Buffalo in northern Alberta, Canada.

From 2010 to 2014, she co-organized the annual Tar Sands Healing Walk in Alberta, and in 2015 she helped construct a 20.8-kilowatt solar panel installation to power the local health centre in Little Buffalo.

[2][3] In 1988, her community held a six-day protest against the effects of local oil and gas drilling, and the experience influenced Laboucan-Massimo's interest in activism and social justice.

After finishing her undergraduate degree, she travelled to Brazil, Mexico and Australia for various job and internship opportunities, finally moving to British Columbia to work with the Indigenous-focused Redwire Magazine.

[1] In early 2009, Laboucan-Massimo was partway through a master's degree in Environmental Studies at York University, but took a leave of absence from the program when her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

[2] She worked on a photo essay with Greenpeace to document the oil spill effects on local communities,[7] and in March 2012 she testified before a subcommittee of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, presenting an argument against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

[11] In July 2013, Laboucan-Massimo's younger sister Bella Laboucan-McLean, an aspiring fashion designer living in Toronto, died from a fall off a condo balcony after a night out with five other people.