On Healing Justice…
| By Evie Muir |
As both a domestic abuse survivor and domestic abuse practitioner, with over a decade’s experience of working within the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) I have witnessed first-hand the tug and pull of change around gendered violence.
Our awareness, language and policies may have evolved somewhat, but we are yet to see a societal change in attitude and action that can yield measurable results in terms of the number of self-identifying women and gender diverse people who feel unquestionable safety in our existence.
Through working within the VAWG sector I realised:
It is, in and of itself, a violent institution,
This violence is built upon a colonial, white feminist, capitalist, Charity Industrial Complex model,
It is reinforced by its relationship with patriarchal systems of policing and the state,
And is embedded in institutionalised racism, transphobia homophobia, islamophobia, and ableism,
This translates to the harm perpetrated against the most vulnerable survivors who are excluded from and re-victimised by services, against the practitioners who – often survivors themselves – are retraumatised in their roles - and where only the most privileged of survivors have a shot at “healing” and “justice”,
As a result, I believe strongly that the VAWG sector will never be successful in eradicating gendered violence.
It was this point of disenfranchisement and disillusionment that led to my experience of severe burnout in 2021.
I felt powerless to enact change and trapped in a career which manipulated my passion and made me ill to a life altering extent. I realised, that it was no longer my own abusers whose harm kept me up at night, but the harm perpetrated by my job.
Upon leaving the VAWG sector I realised that from this perpetual state of burn out, activists within the sector are forced to exist within a survival mode.
From this place, there is no room for hope and imagination – two things integral to abolitionist practice. This time last year, I too felt overwhelmed and sceptical about abolitionist feminist praxis. I found it nonsensical, over-ambitious, and unrealistic.
I now realise that this was because its praxis is so far removed from the reality of the ethics of the VAWG sector, and that that speaks volumes about it’s current capacity to enact change.
It is from this place of renewed hope and imagination that Peaks of Colour’s Healing Justice Club was born.
We know that many survivors of gendered violence - especially survivors of colour and those with intersecting identities - are disproportionately less likely to access justice and healing through traditional institutions such as the criminal justice system and psychotherapeutic services.
Often, when we do turn to the police, the courts, VAWG services, our GPs or therapy services for help, we leave re-traumatised and further harmed, be that through institutional racism, transphobia, homophobia and racism, long waiting lists, or culturally incompetent care.
In Peaks of Colour’s Healing Justice Club, we’re striving to build a radical space for hope and imagination outside of these institutions. A space where, we have the agency to explore alternative routes of healing and justice that do not rely on systems of policing, pathologizing and harm.
It will include regular walkshops, offering collective creative and holistic experiences in nature to compliment our own individual healing journeys.
Our spaces will offer solace and solidarity, a space to resist conformity, rebel, and revolt. They will be an opportunity to take what you need and leave what you don’t. To laugh, cry, shout, and scream. To hold and be held. To contribute, collaborate, coproduce and build. Our spaces will be messy, imperfect, and experimental. Our Healing Justice club is a permission to just be.
Who can join Our Healing Justice Club?
Anyone who self-identifies as women or gender diverse people of colour (this includes transwomen, nonbinary and gender fluid femmes)
Anyone who self-identifies as a survivor of gendered violence of any kind (including but not limited to; physical, emotional, psychological, financial, cultural abuse, sexual abuse, violence, assault or harassment, trafficking and modern slavery, and state violence of any kind)
You do not have to disclose or prove your experiences in order to join our Healing Justice Club.
Just show up, wherever you are on your recovery journey, and we will meet you where you’re at!
