What is Embodied Antiracism?   

Hannah Kendaru uses breathwork and embodiment to bring us back into the deep remembrance of what freedom really means. With the currents of a dominant white culture heavily pedalling disconnection, separateness and discrimination as a way of life, and teaching us to become disembodied to tolerate life's atrocities, Hannah uses the breath to remember our bodies, remember their lived experiences and attend to the wisdom that lies within.  

I met Hannah Kendaru last year when I joined a small group of people and breathworkers to explore one of the most life-changing books I have ever read called my Grandmothers Hands by Resmaa Menakem, (an American therapist, licensed social worker, police trainer and consultant who specializes in trauma work, addressing conflict, and body-centred healing.)  

We wanted to use an embodied approach to experiencing this book and its content, with the idea that if breathwork can support the integration of trauma on an individual, collective or intergenerational basis and is proven to support the creation of new neural pathways and ways of thinking and being in the world, then why couldn't it also be used as a tool to support the transformation of racialised trauma and conditioned belief systems and structures that support division, conflict and suppression?  

A year later and my journey on this path is deepening with the absolute knowing that I am only at the beginning!   

Hannah has been doing embodied antiracism work for a long time, she might say her whole life. I'm so grateful to be in dialogue with this amazing women and to be able to enter into a space where we can talk and explore the unavoidably messy and uncomfortable terrain of race, with the support of our training in breathwork and somatic enquiry.   

Here is the first of many conversations. We decided to call these conversations 'fumbling conversations about race' which felt appropriate and honest in the setting we found ourselves in together.   

In this first episode, Hannah introduces the concept and meaning of embodied anti-racism and racialised trauma.   

To find out more about Hannah, her work and offerings check out her website here.  https://inspire-breathwork.org/  

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Recourses:  

https://www.resmaa.com/movement 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Grandmothers-Hands-Racialized-Pathway/dp/0141996471 

https://youtube.com/c/akalamusic 

https://mashable.com/article/racial-injustice-documentaries/?europe=true

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