Trauma in Movements

As i delve more deeply into the book i am writing, i have fallen behind my self-imposed timelines for posting on this blog. In short in the book i am in conversation with my soul, ancestors, spirit guides and nature about the central guiding question of my life: What is (or are, if they are different) my purpose and destiny?  And i am exploring what it means to have these conversations in a historical moment characterized by intersecting social, economic, political, health and climate crises.

Though a long way from finishing the book, i am grappling with the intergenerational transference of trauma and its impacts on each generation in a series of conversations with my ancestors. And a recent set of events has me thinking deeply about the ways that trauma shows up in movement relationships; that is, relationships between and among progressive movement activists and leaders. Many of us come into this world bearing the scars of ancestors born generation after generation under conditions of European colonization, enslavement and myriad forms and expressions of violence. And in each generation, Western cultural hegemony has strengthened its domination through the production and reproduction of ideas and race/class/gender social orders that justify and perpetuate it, policies and laws that implement it and military apparatuses that defend it. And here we are. Each generation born into this mess. Each generation attempting to address the most obvious expressions of injustice in the best ways we can given these realities.

But there is more. Not only are we born into a society that foments isolation, anomie, amnesia and erasure of Aboriginal people and their descendants, but many have had to navigate, experience, suffer and/or heal from interpersonal, even familial, violence in the course of our lives. And it is often from these places of intersecting/overlaid traumas that we show up in movements and movement spaces.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are a number of factors that shape who we are as people and how we engage with others in fights for justice and systemic change. But trauma is a big one. And it is one that impacts how people respond under pressure, in moments of confusion or disagreement, when resources flow and there aren’t principles on how to allocate them and so on. It also shapes how people show up in relationship with one another, particularly surrounding issues of trust and transparency.

I don’t purport to have answers or to even have pristine hands around this issue. There have been times when trust was a challenge for me or when i misread someone’s words or body language because i filtered them through the lenses described above. I could easily rattle off many other situations. But what i do have are lessons from personal and observed experiences that grow in response to new circumstances. And i would argue that it would behoove us all - for the sake of our relationships and movements - to learn to be self-reflective and cultivate the skills to sort through the emotional minefields that trauma creates within our emotional and physical bodies.

Words are powerful. They hold energy that can impact not just those who are within ear’s reach, but also those (people, situations, etc.) that are the subject/object of the words. Often, what our mind wants to react to begins with a feeling in the gut; that part of us that tells us something needs our attention. In such moments we can notice it and receive the message that it brings. Is your body telling you that something doesn’t feel quite right in this situation? Is it there simply a feeling, but uncertainty about the nature of the message? From there we can explore the source and then release it, transmute and repurpose it or allow it to fester and grow.

These are skills that take learning and practice, followed by more learning and practice. And there are a number of tools out there that provide analysis and guidance. A search of various terms on the internet yields many results, including “trauma in movements,” “socialized trauma,” “trauma and activism.” For people with an openness and orientation toward African spirituality and an interest in understanding and dealing more broadly with emotion, i recommend Devil Ain’t Nothin’ but a Five Letter Word: A self-help journal to transforming fear, by Iya Ifalola Omobola. And though i haven’t yet read it, i have heard many good things about My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts, by Resmaa Menakem.

If you have recommendations for tools that you have found useful in understanding and/or healing from trauma within movement spaces, please share them in the comments below.

Thank you for reading.