What is the glue that binds our resistance work? How does healing justice fit into our resistance for the long haul? With the return of our healing justice monthly workshops, we sat down together to discuss healing justice as a foundational part of organizing and activism work.
The medical and health care system says that healing happens away from your life- in a sterile, ahistorical, apolitical space- in which you are helped to go back to work tomorrow and be able to cope. That’s the first thing that we need to challenge.
With FCCAN, we are intentionally creating healing justice spaces that center Black People, Indigenous People, and people of color, committed to forms of healing that counteract the impact of oppression. For the collective of queer, cis, trans women organizers and healers, ancient traditions of medicine and wellness are a path to liberation.
We see our work as a continuation of our ancestors efforts to uphold the dignity of oppressed people. We move beyond the rhetoric of “self-care”, exploring the links between recovery, spirituality, activism and self-determination by reconnecting with the practices of our ancestors and confronting institutional, interpersonal and internalized oppression.
We like to think of the monthly workshops as seasonal community healing gatherings, where we offer yoga, plant-based medicine, essential oil therapy, embodied movement, bodywork, spiritual divinations, guided meditation, on a sliding scale payment. These spaces are a deliberate response to violence, therefore these spaces are trauma-informed, rooted in anti-oppressive practice and affirmative of all genders and body types.
We all navigate a society that works overtime to sell quick fixes, but together we are committed to self-care as a kind of generational, political resistance.
Food as Medicine, Growing Roots during September Workshop
On September 14th, we are teaming up with our friends at The Growing Project, to connect with our plant communities. Understanding and identifying plant communities can inform us what herbs we can expect to see in different environments, and which plants have similar growing conditions and needs. Simple foraging, hands-on techniques will be incorporated into this workshop, as well as some food and embodiment work.
When: Saturday, September 14th 4-6pm
Where: The Growing Project Farm, 1502 N Shields St.
RSVP and find out more here