For Jamaican-born Didan Ashanta Wedderburn, home has become bigger than any one place on a map.
It is a perspective shaped by a life spent crossing cultures. Raised in Portmore, St. Catherine, Wedderburn spent eight years living and working in Japan before eventually making a new home in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Those experiences would later fuel her desire to help other migrants navigate the often difficult and stressful process of starting over in a new country. Wedderburn believes that while some degree of migration stress may come with rebuilding a life somewhere new, it is possible to adapt, find belonging and embrace a new culture without losing yourself in the process.
For Wedderburn, that belief is grounded in lived experience. Having spent most of her adult life outside Jamaica, she acknowledges that the places she has lived have broadened her worldview and become part of who she is.
“In my home, we speak Patois, eat a lot of Japanese dishes, and dance our hearts out to Now, that work has earned Wedderburn national recognition as one of Canada International Black Women Excellence’s 2026 Top 100 Black Women to Watch, an honour recognising Black Canadian women for their leadership, innovation, service and impact.
But what first inspired Wedderburn to venture beyond Jamaica, and how did her own experiences of migration eventually put her on a path towards helping others find belonging?
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A Wanderlust That Began at Home
Born at Andrews Memorial Hospital in Kingston and raised in Portmore, St. Catherine, Wedderburn grew up in a household where learning extended well beyond the classroom. Her mother built a small home library filled with encyclopaedias and West Indian literature, creating an environment that encouraged curiosity about the world beyond Jamaica.
Her father encouraged a different kind of exploration. Wedderburn was expected to engage with the influential adults around him, debate current affairs and defend her opinions. Even requests to attend field trips or special outings with friends could require a convincing argument and some consideration of the risks involved.
That curiosity followed her through Holy Childhood High School and eventually to Jamaica Theological Seminary, where an opportunity during her first year of university gave her an early taste of life abroad.
Through a volunteer programme, Wedderburn travelled to Indonesia to teach English at a university. The experience proved pivotal. She discovered a love for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and began imagining a life that could take her beyond Jamaica.
In 2008, she landed in Gifu, Japan, on an invitation from a church to establish a private English school. While there, she also taught in public schools and tutored private students, beginning what would eventually become an eight-year relationship with the country.
A New Direction in Newfoundland
After eight years in Japan, Wedderburn was ready for another change. Looking to transition from classroom teaching into curriculum development, she began exploring master’s programmes and eventually chose Memorial University of Newfoundland. In August 2019, she moved to Newfoundland and Labrador, drawn in part by the opportunity to continue her education while being closer to Jamaica.
Starting over in Canada also gave Wedderburn a new perspective on her years in Japan. She began to recognise that many of the challenges she had experienced as a foreigner were not unique to one country, but part of the broader experience of rebuilding a life somewhere new.
That realisation began to shape the direction of her work. Wedderburn became increasingly interested in migration stress and how it affects people’s ability to adapt, build relationships and create fulfilling lives in their new countries. As she puts it, migration stress may be “normal”, but she had also seen how it could disrupt people’s dreams and well-being.
“I wanted to do something to change that,” she says.
That interest has since become part of her academic work. Now pursuing a Doctor of Global Leadership at Columbia International University, Wedderburn is researching intercultural resilience and how people can navigate migration stress, develop a sense of belonging and embrace a new culture without losing their own cultural identity
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Helping Others Find Their Footing
Wedderburn is also putting those ideas into practice. As a social and migrant integration consultant and cross-cultural reinvention strategist, she works with organisations, communities and foreign professionals navigating the realities of living and working in a new cultural environment.
Central to that work is the concept of intercultural resilience, which Wedderburn defines as the ability to “adapt, connect, contribute and lead within different cultural environments without the stress damaging or destroying your identity.”
In Newfoundland and Labrador, that has included supporting racialised newcomers who are building businesses, as well as working as a workshop facilitator, business coach and entrepreneur-in-residence with organisations including Futurpreneur, Tribe Network and YMCA NL.
Her work in the province has also extended beyond professional support into building community and creating spaces for newcomers to connect and belong. In 2022, Wedderburn and three other Jamaican women organised a major Jamaican Emancipation and Independence celebration, an initiative that grew into a wider community network connecting Jamaicans and other Caribbean residents.
That network eventually helped give rise to the Jamaican Canadian Association of Newfoundland and Labrador (JCANL), which Wedderburn co-founded in 2025 and served as its first president. She was also project lead for St. John’s Jerk Fest, helping take the Caribbean cultural festival from concept to execution.
Through JCANL, Wedderburn has also helped mobilise the community around Jamaica. Following Hurricane Melissa, the organisation spearheaded several fundraising initiatives, including the One Love Jamaica Concert, an auction and an online campaign. Together, the efforts raised more than $7,000, with concert proceeds donated to Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management and other funds providing scholarships for five students from affected parishes.
Awards Are Not Just ‘Thank Yous’
The CIBWE Top 100 Black Women to Watch recognises Black Canadian women whose leadership, innovation, service and impact are helping to transform communities and industries across Canada. For Wedderburn, being named among the 2026 honourees has also prompted her to think differently about the value of recognition.
Seeing a life transformed or knowing that someone valued her contribution had always been enough motivation. Now, she also sees the value of the visibility an award can bring to the work and the connections it can create.
“I’ve come to understand that awards are not just ‘thank yous’,” she says. “They’re like spotlights showing people who to support and collaborate with.”
That makes this recognition particularly meaningful.
“Being named one of CIBWE’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch is both an incredible honour and a meaningful nod to the work I have been doing to help newcomers integrate and build fulfilling lives in Canada,” she says. “This recognition reminds me that we are seen, our leadership is appreciated, and the contributions we make in our communities can have a bigger impact than we could ever imagine.”
Going Further Together
For Wedderburn, the work continues. As she pursues her research and continues working with migrant communities, she hopes to deepen what has become both a passion and a personal commitment to “advancing the welfare of the whole human race”, a sentiment that echoes Jamaica’s National Pledge and, perhaps fittingly, ties her work back to the little island she has carried with her throughout her journey.
Even after spending most of her adult life away from home, her Jamaican identity remains central to how she understands herself and the work she does. In many ways, she says, Jamaica has travelled ahead of her, its culture and icons preceding her wherever she goes.
“At my core, I’m a daughter of Queen Nanny and a student of Marcus Garvey,” she says.
It is perhaps fitting for someone whose work centres on the idea that embracing a new home does not have to mean losing the old one. As Wedderburn looks towards what comes next, she sees the connections she has built across countries and communities as part of the way forward.
“Of course, we go further and faster when we go together,” she says.