Ancestral Healing Supports Anti-Racist Solidarity Building for People of Colour

Abstract

This manuscript-style thesis explores ways in which ancestral healing, as a set of practices and a resource, can expand capacity and generate possibilities for accessing and cultivating a felt sense of anti-racist solidarity for People of Colour (POCs). It bridges the gap between the traditionally intellectual concept of racial solidarity building and the animist and embodied realms of ancestral-cultural healing to bring forth insights on opportunities for collective healing and liberation for POCs. The recommendations and considerations offered are aimed at bringing ancestral-cultural healing to the forefront for both individual and collective transformation, in clinical and community-based settings, while centring ethics of anti-racism, animism, embodiment, and decolonization.