The Politics of Trauma
Denise Nadeau
Notes:
• Denise Nadeau wrote the description
• They also provided a voice over
I am a white skinned woman with dark brown hair and graying temples with hair pulled back tight in a braid. I am wearing glasses with no rim on the bottom and dark red rim at the top. I have large headphones on my ears. I am wearing a light blue jersey with a round neck. I am also wearing abalone shell earrings about the size of a quarter. The background is a beige wall.
Unless indicated otherwise, the written descriptions were done by Nicholas Goberdhan from the Access-In-The-Making Lab, and the voiceovers were done by Jamilah Dei-Sharpe from the Respond to Crisis Team. Image descriptions are constructed based on how the participants identified themselves in their videos and in consultation with the AIM LAB. If you would like to make changes to any part of the description, please do not hesitate to email us at info@respondtocrisis.com.
The Politics of Trauma
with Denise Nadeau
Denise Nadeau is an Affiliate Assistant Professor in the Department of Religions and Cultures at Concordia University.
In this video
Themes
Mind & body
Nadeau examines the “politics of trauma.” She discusses the ways in which the discourse about trauma reinforces racist and colonial structures and how white body supremacy plays into these structures.
Taking action
Focus on resurgence and sovereignty rather than trauma and suffering
Enrich your classroom with BIPOC guest speakers to lead anti-racist and decolonial conversations
Self-educate and become aware of healing and embodied ways of structuring your classroom
Resources
King, Ruth. Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out. Sounds True: Boulder, 2018
Nadeau, Denise and Alannah Young. “Embodying Indigenous Resurgence: All My Relations Pedagogy.” In Sharing Breath: Embodied Learning and Decolonization, ed. Sheila Batacharya and Yuk-Lin Renita Wong, 55–82. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, 2018.
Menakem. Resmaa, My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2017
Million, Diane. Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights. Tucson University of Arizona Press, 2014.
Nadeau, Denise. Unsettling Spirit: A Journey into Decolonization. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2020