Saturday School 2023

What is Embodied Leadership, Science-fiction and Design Justice?

Embodied Leadership:

‘The body is the place we can transform trauma and align our visions most directly.’ (Staci Haines, Generative Somatics)

Embodied leadership, allyship and somatic techniques support us to bring our full selves to our visions so that we can be more resourced and connected in our leadership. Through trauma-informed somatic practices, we grow our capacity to navigate burnout, to resource healing, and to build healthy movements. 

Science-fiction writing:

‘It is our right and responsibility to write ourselves into the future’ - (Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown, Octavia’s Brood).

If imagination is one of the spoils of colonisation, nurturing the capacity of oppressed communities to imagine is a necessary and powerful resource for our movements. Through the practice of creative and science-fiction writing, we exercise our ability to vision alternatives to the status quo, and to embolden our strategies. 

Design Justice:

‘We use design to sustain, heal and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems’ (Design Justice Network Principle 1)

Design Justice is an approach to design that is led by marginalised communities to challenge rather than reproduce structural inequalities. Through Design Justice principles, we nurture an intention to design strategies and stories that are movement-led, and center choice and possibility.