27-01-2021
Movement, moving together, to walk at the same time through distance.
We voice call over WhatsApp whilst walking around our neighbourhoods describing our locations and what we can see.
noticing the moss growing everywhere in the urban environment and remembering Robin Wall Kimmerer talking about lessons from moss. take just what you need, nothing more
we take photos of the moss we can each see, on trees, on pavements we think about this whole period of research/study we have been doing together
what have we learnt? what has been difficult? what do we want to do next?
thinking about the collective, dropping out from the group itself. How to practice mutual aid within the group even when we are all emotionally frayed and wellness itself is scarce?
different interpretations, letting us each do what we need to do in these appalling circumstance where freelancers are left behind by government to a position of increasing precarity/desperation
Art is vital
Let’s focus on ourselves first, work out our own needs, to ask ourselves questions, How can we flourish as a collective?
burdened by responsibilities not wanting to burden others figuring out our capacities, not over stretching them
only working on what is vital to us
don’t have time or energy to do otherwise… but still lots of issues that are pressing – around social justice, how to operate as a collective, how to reinvigorate the collective (new members?), look again at our manifesto, is it still pertinent?
What else to add? how to sustain a collective? who cares for the carer? or in a hierarchy who looks after the boss?
To ensure people don’t experience burnout, everyone within the system should support each other, more like an interchanging multi-directional web of connections than a traditional hierarchy of cascading responsibilities and power
How does would that work in our collective? We have uneven responsibilities, this can be reflected by contributing uneven effort/time to projects but what does this mean for remuneration? we need to work this out (we are still operating within capitalism)
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Dropping in.
How to articulate what we need in difficult times?
where are we at?
where do we move towards?
wanting to do stuff unsure of what to do that would have meaning?
trying out things?
energy
fear can be paralysing
now to be bold.
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10 useful questions for those organising for mutual aid during covid
Some thoughts on the work of Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures
