About the Programme
This programme is rooted in the idea that health is ecological and collective, meaning that habitat and people are intrinsically entwined. The air that we breathe, water we drink, places we sleep, the autonomy of our communities, all play a crucial role in our health. Therefore, if we want to heal, we also have to be in Kinship with more-than-human animals, our Peoples and Planet.
We are humbly picking up the batton, alongside many others, from the historic and groundbreaking work of The Black Panther Party and Zapatista Movements. Both have established precedent for health justice, specifically in how to create pathways for deep healing through collective care, organising, land-based practices and autonomy.
This programme drew upon abolitionist principles. We recognise that systems of capitalism, colonialism and other forms of oppression are designed to destroy health and exploit life. They cannot be compatible with health justice. Abolition asks us to dismantle and disrupt those systems, and to simultaneously imagine, build and collectively seed systems of care, regeneration and healing.
As scientists and health practitioners this means acknowledging that health is ecological. Meaning that the places we inhabit and our experiences within them affect our health. The contaminated air we breathe is affecting our cellular construction giving way to multiple diseases. The pain and trauma of extraction and contamination that is imposed on the Land, is the same that is being manifested in our bodies through disease.
Therefore, if we are to heal, our practices have to be rooted in Land Justice, Trans Rights, Worker Rights, The Rights of Land and Water Protectors. We also have to be anti-genocide, anti-settler colonialism, anti-occupation, and in concert with abolitionist movements.
