New Perspectives on Collective Healing, Social Justice and Well-Being is an exciting international webinar series, jointly hosted by The UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project and the Global Humanity for Peace Institute, University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD). These webinars are supported by AfroSpectives and Spirit of Humanity Forum.
Trans-generational traumas resulting from mass brutality can persist through familial, communal, and societal lines. These traumas stem from major historical dehumanising acts, such as the transatlantic trade of enslaved peoples, and colonialisation. They are then compounded by continued structural oppression that affects successive generations. Recognition, Restoration, Reconciliation and Regeneration are four key processes in our collective journeys towards healing traumas, building just society, and enhancing well-being for the future.
The UNESCO Intergenerational Dialogue & Inquiry (IDI) is a community-based programme through which people come together to explore multi-dimensional harms of historical atrocities, and acknowledge the long-lasting effects of their legacies on the entire community. It seeks to reclaim the cultural resources for resilience and healing, deepen solidarity across the divides, and propose ways to address the structural dimensions of dehumanisation through systemic transformation.
This 5th webinar gathered voices from communities who have participated in the IDI Pilot, with an Introduction from Linda Tinio-Le Douarin, the Deputy Chief, UNESCO Section for Inclusion, Rights and Intercultural Dialogue, Social and Human Sciences Sector.
The speakers are elders and young participants of the IDI programme pilot from four continents. They reflected on their experiences of the IDI process and share key insights emergent, with a focus on approaches to nurturing collective healing, justice and well-being. Following brief presentations, the speakers engaged in dialogue with one another to discuss common themes of healing, and respond to questions from the audience.
Presenters
Dr Dianne Regisford is a dynamic Social Sculpture practitioner, invested in regenerative ARTivism for belonging, racial equity and cultural transformation through a social justice lens. She is the founder, visionary and creator of Evoking Belonging – a body of work expressed as Design Strategy , Social Sculpture research practice, poetry and thought leadership. Working with her unique Evoking Belonging Ubuntu Practices, Dianne designs and stewards inclusive, participatory approaches to belonging through equitable enquiry into power and privilege, racial justice and cultural transformation. This is an innovative approach to sociocultural co-imagining for a regenerative, equitable, humane and just society. Her current writing and research focus on exploring Indigenous African Diaspora Knowledge Systems, with specific reference to ancestral intergenerational healing and cultural restoration for African heritage communities in the Diaspora. More about Dianne HERE.
Dr Gloria Patricia Moreno is traditional indigenous doctor/healer of the Cañamón Lomaprieta, Colombia. She is the principal advisor and counsellor of wise men and women in the Caldas Province.
As a traditional healer, Gloria introduces the spiritual aspect to healing, justice and well-being. She sees the spiritual as the balance between the different forces, such as between the positive and the negative, and between demanding respect for human rights, and restoring human values within the community. For Gloria, healing is achieved through harmonisation and every concrete material activity has its balance through rituals and spiritual contents.
Casey Overton (she/they) is a radical nonprofit strategist, writer, and spiritual activist who is insistent on cultivating space for collective healing. They are the editor of “Liturgy that Matters”, an enfleshed publication, and the coordinator for Black faith programs in an affirming spiritual community. Her communications and faith-based nonprofit background has allowed the cultural metaphysics of liberation to become an ongoing priority in her work. As a multi-spiritual worker, they love being immersed in cooperative interfaith dialogue while creating restorative environments for marginalized populations within or beyond faith institutions. Her work as a faith nonprofit strategist draws on her expertise in systems analysis for co-creating spiritually sustainable cultures. She is a graduate of Hampton University and Duke Divinity School. She resides in the Powhatan lands now called Richmond, VA., USA.
Ojeriakhi Oluwaseyi (Seyi), born and raised of mixed ethnicity of Edo and Yoruba in the suburbs of Lagos, Nigeria, is a lawyer, writer, artist and changemaker. Seyi is a student of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos. He is a member of the Secretariat Committee, and recently was awarded first prize in the 2023 Writing Bout of the Law Students Society. He is a facilitator for Initiatives of Change, Nigeria, a global NGO with an interest in driving the necessary ethical transformation in the society. Seyi recently co-facilitated an Ethical Leadership Retreat hosted in Lagos, which supported and nurtured over 40 students from Lagos University through dialogic learning.
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