Two Essays on Non-Western Approaches to Healing
INTRODUCTION
In past work, we have highlighted how the western medical industrial complex inflicts harm to peoples who are marginalised by white supremacy, specifically those who intersect with disability, racialisation, economic poverty, and Transnesss. These peoples and communities are at higher risk for medical malpractice; being misdiagnosed, ignored, confronted with violent language, and forced into non-consensual medical procedures.
This can result in resorting to alternative care, which can be healing, but it can also prevent accessing vital healing opportunities. To be "seen" by the western medical complex is more often than not to be harmed.
These two essays reflect on non-western healing epistemologies, both as an opportunity for healing and as a response to the harms of the western medical industrial complex.
To initiate the process of healing, it is necessary to consider the tools with which we can deconstruct the system - ranging from legislation to localised capacity building of health workers. While engaging with the system is a necessity, it is essential to work outside of the system as well. Should we forget to do so, we may burn out - as individuals and as a movement ecology.
How have "our" healing practices, which are erased from the dominant western medical narratives, been healing us from the brink of extinction?
“No matter how much we cry, if they don’t understand our pain - it’ll take us a long time to change anything” says migrants rights organiser Last Mafuba whilst speaking about how the current system’s design is not created to address marginalised folk’s suffering.
Last’s conception of pain as a language and care as a means of communicating sacredness is significant. In speaking of how some pain is historically misunderstood, categorised as meaningless or as the way things are, Last’s words encourage us to think about how this has historically resulted in marginalised people not receiving the care they need. Histories of white body supremacy that have sought to justify the way that some bodies are sacred and to be taken care of, and others simply as commodities with which to be extracted from to create profit. To be a commodity is to have extinction inscribed on your body and others that look like you through unsafe working conditions, unsafe housing or food poverty.
I am reminded of Alexis Pauline Gumbs work in Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. In it they write: “How can we be seen without being known, how can be known without being hunted”. It makes me think of how care and healing can be synonymous with being hunted under the current system. Bids for care and healing as marginalised folk can lead to life threatening moments where you're pathologised, policed and traumatised - pushed further into extinction by the institutions that are meant to provide healing.
Across history, marginalised communities who are at risk of being hunted have crafted systems of care outside the dominant system of provision. As community organiser Axmed Maxamed from Somali Queer Mutual Aid says, we’re each other's family, community healing is a means of communicating sacredness, interdependence and connection, that our lives are for living and intertwined. Sacredness is to be seen, to be understood and to be kin - for your pain to be placed within a context, lineage and a history. Sacredness is a means of crying and your pain to be understood because it is inseparable from mine. It is a collective language of healing that is based in relationship and community - not from institutions that seek to separate us from one another. These healing practices are self-sustaining, interdependent and embedded in our communities in informal and relational ways.
Our healing practices are intergenerational. I am reminded of Richwaters, a Black owned apothecary run by Maya who grows herbs passed down by grandmother's garden and lovingly creates healing salves and tinctures for struggling immune systems lovingly with her daughter, this lineage shares healing with Black activists.
Our healing practices bring us together in community. Inini collective run food convenings where displaced people take turns to cook meals from their homeland, and share with other displaced folk the taste of home, stories of their home and connect. Or how collectives such as Peaks of Colour organise nature walks for BPOC, creating space for folk to be in community with the natural world to marvel at all our plant family.
Our healing practices provide safety through sharing and mutual aid. Such as the sharing of gender affirming medication or through mutual aid drives to access specialised therapy and support to access housing.
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Nonhlanhla Makuyana (they/them) is a multidisciplinary artist, organiser and educator. Their work focuses on the research and archiving of economic liberatory practices that exist within Black queer communities, seeking to shift power and resources towards these communities.
What does Healing look like from a non-western perspective? Healing definitions and questions to contemplate.
When identifying what healing looks like from a non-western perspective, the first question that comes to mind is: ‘What is the system doing to prevent us from healing in the way our ancestors have?’
When contemplating the impediments to healing in our current system, it becomes apparent that the dominant Western paradigm often hinders our ability to heal as our ancestors did. One significant barrier is the pervasive centralisation of white culture through the destruction, marginalisation and belittlement of other other cultural practices. Often taking the form of gaslighting through dismissal and invalidation of our knowledges and experiences, this violence creates power imbalance to blockade the journey of healing of many people of colour.
As someone who has centred most of my recent years towards healing practices, I see non-western practices of healing to encompass a holistic approach that acknowledges the intricate interconnections between and within beings. It recognises that healing extends beyond the physical realm and encompasses emotional, spiritual, and social dimensions as well. Non-western philosophies emphasise the significance of community, ritual, and a deep connection with nature. In doing so, we can recognise our positionality in relation to nature, but more importantly, as nature in action itself. By formulating momentum towards love and justice, we can regain control over our own dignity.
Inevitably, we must ask ourselves, ‘So, how do we heal?’ This can be broken into two parts.
Part 1 - ‘How do we challenge the system?’ To initiate the process of healing, it is necessary to consider the tools with which we can deconstruct the system - ranging from legislation to localised capacity building of health workers. While engaging with the system is a necessity, it is essential to work outside of the system as well. Should we forget to do so, we may burn out - as individuals and as a movement ecology.
Part 2 - ‘How do we heal in ways that does not centre the white supremacist, imperial system?’ Creating community spaces and grassroots systems of collective healing, such as community gardens, can foster a sense of belonging and enable individuals to share their thoughts, experiences, and inputs. In these spaces, people can collectively challenge oppressive structures, learn from one another, and cultivate alternative approaches to healing.
Reclaiming the knowledge and practices of our ancestors is another vital aspect of the healing process. This involves re-learning the methods and wisdom that our ancestors employed for healing, while acknowledging that they were not infallible.
Our ancestors laid the foundations upon which we can build, and it is our responsibility to continue their work for the betterment of future generations. Recognising that we have lost valuable knowledge due to cultural erasure, we must actively seek to recover, preserve, and adapt these ancestral healing practices for contemporary contexts.
When approaching this process we must centre ourselves in the realisation that we are not aiming for perfection. Moreso, we must recognise that the standard of perfection set my western medicine is a farce used to gaslight us once more.
This raises another key question we must ask ourselves when decolonising healing - ‘How have the west attempted to reduce the credibility of our healing knowledges?’ Importantly, this cannot be asked without immediately considering ‘What makes our forms of healing credible and legitimate?’
As a medical student practising in the west, a question I cannot overlook is: ‘Where do health workers fit into this methodology?’ Health workers play a pivotal role in this healing journey. We must be part of the community, instead of bystanding observers.
This includes actively engaging with and learning from the diverse knowledge systems and practices that exist within it. As health workers, we should share our own knowledge while simultaneously unlearning oppressive structures and biases, fostering a collective growth process.
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Amiteshwar Singh (he/him) is an activist based in Norwich, focusing on and exploring the intersection of health justice, ecological justice and abolition. His work primarily brings forward a health perspective, working with organisations such as Health for a Green New Deal, People's Health Movement and Students for Global Health. Amit commits himself to work towards a community-led radical, joyful future, where health equity is a reality for all.
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