Everything in Relationship: Arts, Humanities, Health, Anti-Colonialism, and Reckoning with the Climate Catastrophe

On July 4th, 2023, HARC contributor Dr Lisa Boivin and HARC Research Director Dr Sarah de Leeuw presented with long-time friends of HARC, Dr Margo Greenwood, Dr Margot Parkes, and Kung Jaadee, at the Association for Medical Humanities Annual International Conference, “Fevers, Frets, and Futures: Uncertainty and New Ecologies for Post-Covid Healthcare.”

Together, as friends and colleagues, they presented their talk entitled, “Everything is in Relationship: Arts, Humanities, Health, Anti-Colonialism, and Reckoning with the Climate Catastrophe.”

View their presentation here: https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/8H6bbC77

Abstract: Colonial violence and imperialism are inextricably tethered to planetary destruction. The Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, storytellers, scholars, activists, and healthcare researchers who are members of this panel take as a starting point that colonial violence and imperialism are present-day forces impacting both human and non-human worlds. With this in mind, we discuss our relationships with each other, which we argue is fundamental to new anti-colonial ways of knowing and being. We also discuss how our work has come to be taken up in medical education, healthcare professionalization, and in efforts to expand beyond biomedical modes of thinking about complex messy issues that include climate catastrophes, health disparities, and ecological destruction. We discuss and share stories about racism and coloniality, offering insights about how the (ongoing) colonial project of anti-Indigeneity (ecologically, geographically, socially, and culturally) has implications for the planet and for the health of every being who lives here. After a short 7-10 minutes presentation from each presenter, the session will provide an opportunity for open discussion.