Mariya Lepp is a disability activist and advocate, a community organizer for mental health act reform and safe supply, and a visual and performing artist. She lives and works on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory.
She works with SPIRIT (Society of Pillars for Individuals Receiving Involuntary Treatment), a non-profit she founded with people who have experienced incarceration in the mental health system. In the past, Mariya worked as a registered nurse in the mental health and palliative care fields. She is now an advocate for people with developmental disabilities who are under guardianship agreements.
Mariya has organized around all of these issues as well as around Safe Supply. The Disability Inclusion movement and madqueer organizing have both informed and impacted Mariya and SPIRIT’s organizing.
Mariya is a visual and performing artist who has worked collaboratively with other DTES (Downtown Eastside, Vancouver) artists and activists on murals, clowning as a form of activism, and performance pieces.
Image description: Cappuccino the cat posing on a green mat on top of a purple and pink desk drawer container.
I'm a disability activist and advocate, a community organizer for mental health act reform and safe supply, and a visual and performing artist. I live and work on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory.
I work with SPIRIT (Society of Pillars for Individuals Receiving Involuntary Treatment), a non-profit founded by myself and individuals with lived experience of incarceration in the mental health system. In my previous career as a registered nurse, I worked in mental health and palliative care. I am now an advocate for individuals who are under guardianship agreements due to developmental disability. I have organized around these issues as well as around Safe Supply, hosting rallies and speaking at various events.
The Disability Inclusion movement informed much of my earlier work in community organizing. Later, madqueer organizing impacted our work at SPIRIT. I'm a visual and performing artist and have worked collaboratively with other DTES (Downtown Eastside, Vancouver) artists and activists on murals, clowning as a form of activism, and performance pieces.
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Artwork description: An image with 8 photos surrounded by a lilac coloured background. Image 1: A person wearing a clown costume with sherbet (purple, orange and multiple shades of pink) polka dot and lilac fabric posing while walking in a downtown alleyway in front of a white gate. 3 clown faces are attached to this costume. The faces are lilac felted fabric, a black button for each pair of eyes. The eyes each are surrounded by 4 petal shapes. All shapes in pink or orange with outlines in the opposite colour. The clown face with very pointy hat and diamond nose is at the top of the costume. A second clown face with heart shaped nose is off to the right side of the person’s torso. The third clown with 3 round shapes on head and an upside down heart shaped nose is centred in the stomach area of the costume. The person is posing with the extra long pair of lilac arms open wide, extra limb fabric draping down, with two giant handmade glove hands in a shiny fabric at the bottom of each arm. The person’s legs are covered in shiny fabric that’s gathered as pant legs. Black shoes are visible. Image 2: The person in a version of the clown costume with one arm up and one leg up against a yellow mural wall. The clown head with 3 round shapes above and on either side of their head is at the top of the costume. A clown with a two prong jester hat is in the stomach area of the costume. Black fabric is visible between the lilac costume and the shiny gathered tubes of fabric on either leg. The yellow mural wall has thin triangle slices painted in yellow, orange, white and blue. A blue metal fence is visible above the yellow wall. To the right side of the wall and costumed person is night time black. Image 3: All four versions of the clown heads with lilac heart shaped faces and sherbet polka dot fabric are on the street of a downtown alley, from left to right: the clown face with heart shaped nose/mouth and jester hat head is half visible. The face with upside down heart shaped nose, wearing a silver ruff collar and 3 ball shapes in polka dot fabric surrounding their head. The closest clown in the image has a 3 clover nose and a rectangular head with extra pointy corners. The clown face with diamond nose and very tall pointy hat to the very right is slightly visible in the picture. The background has cement grey and white walls with some graffiti. Caution yellow and black stripe poles are also visible. Image 4: The person in the sherbet polkadot costume has the clown with the 3 clover nose on top of the costume. They are crouching down in front of the 3 other felted lilac face clowns with polka dot fabric. Hand stitched thread in purple is visible on seams of the sherbet polka dot fabric. Image 5: A close up of the clown with upside down heart shaped nose and 3 round ball shapes of fabric around their head. The details of the felted heart shape head in lilac include the mismatched button eyes, one textured and stretched looking. The petal shapes around the eyes are pink outlined in orange. The upside down heart is orange surrounded by pink The silver ruff collar is half visible. The background is a street out of focus. Image 6: The clown with the pointy tall hat and diamond nose is held in front of an orange wall by the giant hand glove of the person in the costume. The clown’s torso is surrounded by polkadot fabric with a cape shape. Image 7: A person wearing a version of the sherbet polka dot and lilac clown costume posing in a downtown alleyway with one leg up. 3 clown faces are attached to this costume. The clown face with very pointy hat is at the top of the costume. A second clown face is off to the right side of the person’s torso. The third clown with 3 round shapes on head is centred in the stomach area of the costume. The person is posing with the extra long pair of lilac arms open wide, extra limb fabric draping down, with two giant handmade glove hands in a shiny fabric at the bottom of each arm. The person’s legs are covered in shiny fabric that’s gathered as pant legs. Black shoes are visible. Image 8: Second image in the centre: A full body length of someone wearing a handmade clown costume with sherbet polka dot fabric and long limbs of shiny lilac purple fabric with shiny silver cuffs between the extensions of the limbs. No part of the person’s skin or hair is visible. Two clown faces are visible. One around the head of the costume, the other around the stomach. Both faces are heart shaped lilac fabric with a pair of black button eyes and 4 petals around each eye. Below the eyes are an upside down heart on the top face, a diamond shape on the bottom face. All shapes are orange and pink. The top of the costume and upper clown face has 3 ball shapes of polka dot fabric on the top and either side of the clown face. Below the clown face is a silver ruff collar. The lower clown face has a very tall pointy hat of polka dot fabric. The person is wearing black pants and shiny silver fabric around their feet, as shoes. The background is a purple mural wall with some rectangular shapes in purple, red, pink and turquoise.
Events related to participant.
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Activism Archive