Joy in Precarity: Rematriation as Healing
This collaborative report on the second use of a healing grant for Trans Migrant POC health justice weaves Nina’s reflections on the methodology and impacts over two events with the testimonials of the participants and further observations from Centric Lab on the impact of this round of the grant.
Decolonisation in Precarity: Migration and Trans Healthcare was the result of Centric Lab offering Nina Rivera, a long standing community organiser and advocate for the health justice of Trans racialised migrants and refugees, our first healing grant. Healing Grants are an opportunity to safely develop and pilot practices of healing that encourage the blend of imagination, practicality, and reference to traditional or alternative knowledges that may not be supported within larger funding systems.
Nina was offered the chance to build on the progress made with Decolonization in Precarity through another healing grant. The second healing grant opportunity, themed Joy in Precarity, built on the methods, practices, and learnings of Decolonisation in Precarity.
This collaborative report on the second use of a healing grant weaves Nina’s reflections on the methodology and impacts of both events with the testimonials of the participants and further observations from Centric Lab on the impact of this round of the grant.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Joy in Precarity Video Zine
Continuing from last year's Decolonisation in Precarity event which tried to identify the inadequacies of trans healthcare in the UK from the point of view of migrants of colour, this year's events begin with the participants' cultures and countries of origin, exploring what remains of their ties to their roots and how reconnecting with these is synonymous with reconnecting with their authenticities, thereby creating less obvious yet hopefully more meaningful pathways to healing from duress.
Karaoke as Rematriation and its accompanying scholarship event are further attempts at understanding health disparities within the Trans Migrant Community. Continuing from last year's Decolonisation in Precarity event which tried to identify the inadequacies of trans healthcare in the UK from the point of view of migrants of colour, this year's events begin with the participants' cultures and countries of origin, exploring what remains of their ties to their roots and how reconnecting with these is synonymous with reconnecting with their authenticities, thereby creating less obvious yet hopefully more meaningful pathways to healing from duress.
The Karaoke event was inspired by pre-colonial ritual specialists and healers from the Philippines called 'Babaylan', many of whom used their embodied voices in song to carry out healing rituals while channelling ancestral spirits. Many Babaylans transgressed gender categorisation or what may within modern contexts be referred to as transgender identities. The Picnic as Scholarship event was held to allow space for them to contend with what the Karaoke event had surfaced from them individually and communally, using art and zine-making as mediums.
This video is a visual representation of what transpired during the two events with a few insights and learnings from both.
To view this video zine please use this link or click the cover image on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
The Science of Communal Singing for Healing and Wellbeing
This is a grounding document to support the use of science as a complementary way of understanding how singing in a group affects our mind, body and spirit. This document aims to showcase deeper relationality between practices, rather than a supremacy of one over the other. We will support this knowledge through introducing terms, describing various contexts, and presenting papers, articles, and other supporting work that those interested can continue to explore in more detail.
One pathway that allows Centric Lab to resource communities in their healing and health justice practices is through presenting scientific principles and lexicon that they may be less familiar with. Science is a process of turning observations and analysis into knowledge, so communities can find new ways of interpreting what they are already practicing, communicating the benefits to others in their community, and exchanging knowledge with others interested in similar processes and outcomes.
This is a grounding document to support the use of science as a complementary way of understanding how singing in a group affects our mind, body and spirit. This document aims to showcase deeper relationality between practices, rather than a supremacy of one over the other. We will support this knowledge through introducing terms, describing various contexts, and presenting papers, articles, and other supporting work that those interested can continue to explore in more detail.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Decolonisation in Precarity: Migration & Trans Healthcare
The following document is Nina’s report on the thoughts and processes leading to the event, what transpired on the day, and the learnings to carry forward accompanied by further exposition by Centric Lab on the topic of migration and trans healthcare as well as the opportunities to build on Nina’s work in the future.
From our Trans and Gender Binary Health Justice Programme, we bring forward the work of an organiser, healer, and advocate of Trans Women's Migrant Rights. She is the recipient of our first Healing grant, where she brought together Trans Migrant Women into a space of Kinship and healing.
Justice cannot ever be top down or gate kept, therefore, we are prototyping methods that provide opportunities for people to enact their justice pathways without paternalistic intervention and without intellectual limitations.
The role that Centric plays is one of resource and infrastructure, where we provide finance, solidarity and commerardary (as this work can be emotionally difficult and at times lonely), tools, and methods/practices.
The type and depth of resourcing and infrastructure is also decided by the grantee, hopefully creating an environment that support autonomy and Kinship.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Trans Migrant People of Colour Health Justice Report
Health Justice Grants are an opportunity to safely develop and pilot practices of healing that encourage the blend of imagination, practicality, and reference to traditional or alternative knowledges that may not be supported within larger funding systems.
Health Justice Grants are an opportunity to safely develop and pilot practices of healing that encourage the blend of imagination, practicality, and reference to traditional or alternative knowledges that may not be supported within larger funding systems.
Healing Grant Feedback
Nina said being offered this grant made her feel, “trustworthy, relevant and necessary.” There was the right level of support from financial support, autonomy. Nina suggested that in the future, it would be beneficial to have additional mental health support for herself and participants before and after the event.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading
Trans Migrant People of Colour Micro Healing Grant Report
There is a need for complementary healing practices that are culturally literate and led directly by the people. Micro healing grants are small, unrestricted stipends that provide the recipient an opportunity to have space to think about their healing and enquire about healing strategies that are currently not available to them.
From our Trans Migrant POC Justice programme we bring forward this piece of working on providing micro-grants designed to give autonomy and dignity to individuals and communities.
This report will show how they have emerged as an innovative approach for Centric Lab to support holistic healing pathways. We are using these grants to start shaping new methods and imaginations around community health practices.
The project lead, initially planned to use this opportunity to conduct interviews with migrant trans people of colour (TMPOCs) that started to address serious research gaps in this community.
After some reflection, they decided that a useful practice of healing to explore for the community would be facilitating a small event titled, Healing Circle: Immigration and Trans Healthcare Decolonisation in Precarity. The focus of this grant was primarily on psychological healing, though physical and financial were incorporated.
To download a pdf copy of this please use this link or read via the slideshow viewer on this page.
Further Information
If you are a person that would like to organise healing opportunities for your community, please get in touch. Equally, if you are an organisation that would like to provide similar infrastructure, also get in touch.
Further Reading