Deep Colonisation Recovery Circles webinar recording available
What can we do about the injustice and trauma in our society and communities?
During Deep Colonisation Recovery Circles webinar, Eva Schonveld carried us beautifully through wisdom and practise of healing colonisation within us collectively.
This webinar is part of Practising Transition project hosted by the Transition movement and Transition Network.
Colonisation was the brutal theft from communities around the world, of their land and resources, perpetrated largely by European nations. It continues, slightly disguised, today through military and economic imperialism and exploitation of ‘poor’ (often resource rich) countries by ‘rich’ (increasingly socially impoverished) countries.
The social and emotional context of power-over and domination which gave rise to colonisation has continued through European (and other) societies and has been so present in our social education that it can be easy to miss. We call this ‘deep colonisation’. It includes, for example, (often unconscious) beliefs such as: some people are worth more than others and humans are superior to nature.
Colonisation generates trauma and is maintained through trauma, so the fundamental project here is healing: healing the histories of domination and oppression that have harmed each of us - and our ancestors - in many different ways.
Deep Colonisation Recovery Circles are one way to support the process of healing. They help us to connect personal, interpersonal and social change and healing. They are spaces to bring together personal and political, inner and outer, where we can explore recovery and healing for ourselves and our wider societies.
In small, supportive groups we meet to explore and practise personal and cultural decolonisation/detraumatisation, taking one area of life (e.g. education, money or food) at a time. We ask: how has this been colonised in me and my life - and what could my first practical steps towards decolonising or healing that be for me?
About Eva Schonveld
Eva Schonveld is a climate activist, process designer and facilitator, supporting power-with organisational development, decision-making and facilitation.
She has an arts background and worked for many years running an ‘Arts for Mental Health’ programme within Artlink, a disability arts organisation. She went on to co-found Scotland’s first Transition town and city, networked to inspire the Transition movement across Scotland, and was commissioned by the Scottish Government to establish and manage Transition Scotland Support.
More recently she co-founded Starter Culture, which is developing a range of projects to tackle the marginalisation of the inner dimension of our lives at different levels of scale.
She is also co-founder of Heartpolitics which exists to address the interconnected social and environmental threats that arise from dividing humans from the wider ecology, and from dividing our minds from our hearts, which is currently working on a fractal Grassroots to Global process which aims to connect open-hearted listening and creative culture re-design processes through citizen-led, power with assembly processes.
She also helped re-energise the Inner Enquiry group for the International Transition Hubs Network and since co-convening the international summit on Transformative Conflict, now leads their Conflict Transformation process and is an active member of the Inner Transition Circle.
Diving deeper
You can use the below resources to become more skilled at this. Explore them at your own leisure, before or after checking out the workshop.
- Read the guide to 'Deep Colonisation Recovery Circles'
- Get to understand the thinking of Grassroots to Global, the collective that developed the above guide. Get practical about decolonisation.
- Explore the wonderul learning resources curated by Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures
- The Deep Adaptation Forum offers us a roundup of insights into Decolonisation.
- Follow and support The Red Nation, an inspiring voice for Decolonisation
