Accountability, responsibility, restorative justice, re-member, re-pair.
Playing with the rhythms of the re- thing… and wanting to pass on what I feel are useful links to inspiring examples of nonviolent communication and restorative justice… I just looked up the etymology of the the word… recommend.
And, in the context of a theme of nonviolence and restorative justice, the source of… recommend… lands well and lifts me.
Recommend, from the Latin;
commendare, meaning, commit to the care of, with the latin, mandare meaning to commit, entrust or enjoin.
Loving this in many ways, dare I commit, could I have been more understanding, taken more care, was I careless?
Also, feeling into my masculine cultural conditioning that would nudge, pull and drag me towards believing that humans with a penis are somehow superior to humans without a penis… leaving us penis owners free to behave without taking responsibility and accountability.
And, being able to back out of any promise without even a twinge of guilt while failing to follow through on a commitment.
As a man, dare I say fuck the patriarchy, dare I step outside the limiting repressive and ridiculous insistence on some binary gender nonsense?
I like to think that I do dare, and, am aware that my white bodied masculinity may well account for my ongoing belief that I can raise above the weak and sad limits of my white fragility and my penis centred privilege.
Sure that is not for me to judge though, so, moving on…
This was not where I expected this to go, hopefully not a plea for a get out of jail free card, and, truth told, I am not sure I expected anything when I sat down to write something around the ways we might escape and liberate ourselves from these end days of this capitalist post industrial colonial dominance based violence.
So, back to the pieces that I fell across this morning and prodded me in this direction.
Two speeches that I heard this morning, one on the subject of HIV/Aids and the other on the pains dished out to indigenous peoples by those promoting and justifying colonial racialised violence.
The first is a speech that Mary Fisher gave at a Republican convention in Houston in 1992. The speech is called A Whisper of Aids and I feel that if you haven’t heard or seen it, I recommend you check it out as an example of a nonviolent communications gem.
The second is a speech written by Don Watson and given by Paul Keating, the then Australian prime minister, first delivered also in 1992.
Sometimes known as the Redfern address, Keating spoke about the dispossession and violence that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had suffered at the hands of the white colonial invasions, tortures, murders and cruelties.
Both of these speeches can be found in the BBC World Service if you search for them there.
This from Mary Fisher;
“ Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the strength to act wisely when we are afraid.”
This from Paul Keating via writing from Don Watson;
“We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases, the alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion.”
A couple of days ago I finished several weeks of anti racist, anti oppression training with Spark Insights collective.
I was moved and changed by the work we did as a collective, and really appreciated and felt the intention, intensity and energy of Zoe who designed and facilitated the sessions.
Something about the way they bought their all to holding a light on what are dark truths that allowed me to find that courage to see and review, despite the presence of the fear that shows up when I recognise my own complicity.
Thanks Zoe for your commitment and drive to see that through.
https://www.instagram.com/sparkcommunity._/
I learn lots about myself and lots about the ways we can all focus on what we may replace these broken oppressive ideologies and systems with by way of these positive examples around how our new futures may show up and include us all.
I trust some of this may be useful for you or for you to pass onto others.
Also, feel free to let me know how all or any of this landed with you, and share any links to stuff that keeps you going in this push towards change too.
Meanwhile, best wishes and solidarity, Mark T.