In this episode we discuss language, writing together and healing with compañeras, Rosa Itandehui Olivera Chávez and Paulina Trejo Mendez. We talk about the ways in which we are unseen by dominant logics, discussing whether this violence ever touches our soul and how spirituality is central to decolonizing the self.
Paulina Trejo Mendez is an artist, independent researcher and teacher at the University of Bonn in Germany. Their research and artistic work centers on the politics of knowledge, particularly resistance to the entwined violence of coloniality, epistemicide and feminicide;. You can find their work on their English blog decolonize and in Spanish on the feminist blog La Catártica. Paulina is also the co-founder of Comalli Collective working together on artistic projects centered on healing.
Rosa Itandehui Olivera Chávez is an indigenous economist specializing in monitoring and evaluation systems. She holds a Masters in International Development Studies with a focus on Children and Youth, and Women and Gender Studies. Itandehui is also a poet and storyteller whose writing reflects a deep connection to her indigenous roots, whilst also questioning patriarchal and colonial structures of power.
Decolonize Blog (Eng): https://encounteringdecoloniality.wordpress.com/
La Catártica Blog (Sp): https://lacatartica.wordpress.com/
Comalli Collective (Eng): https://comallicollective.wordpress.com/
Music for the podcast is produced and performed by Ntomb'Yelanga, whose work is aimed at the preservation, promotion and creation of indigenous instruments and music in South Africa. Her current project, Songs of our Ancestors, explores how ancient sounds ingoma is a language, a memory and a dream we bring to life through intergenerational connections and sound dialogue, where the body is seen as a living archive of these sounds. Makwande sibamba ngazo zombili.http://www.mmaletsatsipro.co.za/
This episode is brought to you by the Civic Innovation Research Initiative, a group of scholar-activists committed to social justice based at the International Institute of Social Studies, in The Hague, Netherlands. https://www.iss.nl/en/research/research-groups/civic-innovation