22/05/2024
“… we must not forget that we are all individual people that contribute to the collective and that our collective contribution as individuals is what will change the world.
I read this quote that resistance work - which is what I believe our work in mental health should be - resisting oppression as a means of self advocacy and a coping strategy to manage anxiety, depression, dissociation and rage - that resistance work should be like singing in a chorus. In a chorus, we all learn the same song, the same chord and we learn to sing so in tune with each other that if some of us need to pause or catch our breath, others can continue singing and holding the note. This process is what keeps the song going. Today that song is nourishment, roots and resilience.
Our culture holds so much strength. It is a grounding force that promotes internal values, a sense of belonging and the understanding that we are never alone. We can find nourishment, rooting and resilience in our cultural lineages, in our stored memories and as culture bearers (which I also believe clinicians should be) so that our cultures will continue to thrive in wellness.
In order to find my purpose in the last 17 years in this work, in order to withstand the struggle of being a young brown woman in a yt patriarchal world, I had to return again and again to my culture. To the stories I was told by elders to nourish me, to root me and to give me resilience and the why of why I do what I do.”
-an excerpt from my AANHPHI/Mental Health Awareness Month speech with the SF Homeless Children’s Network.
Thank you again .juju for saying my name in rooms when I’m not there and for leading the charge at your agency. You deserve your flowers too 🌹
For me this is a manifestation in the making because last year, I told myself.. one day I’ll get paid to show up just to talk to people. And here I am telling stories about my 🇵🇭 culture.
Dreams chasing me, fasho. 🥹😭💖
