The Paueru Gai Dialogues #7: On Mental Health and Art

The Paueru Gai Dialogues #7

This event took place on Saturday, September 18th.

Saturday September 18, 2021 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM PDT / 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
Online on Zoom
FREE event, advance registration required

Art as activism and relational connection to place have been threads throughout the Paueru Gai Dialogues, a pandemic series creating space for sticky issues and community building. Among other questions generated, participants have asked how youth are feeling about themselves; and what tools we might have to address intergenerational trauma and day-to-day discrimination. In this session, guest host Sue Arai and panelists River Blondin Burt, Leanne Toshiko Simpson, and Jotika Chaudhary Samant share insight into healing intergenerational trauma through art. Participants will be invited into breakout groups to share their perspectives with one another. To wrap up the event, everyone will reconvene to offer questions and debrief together.

Guest Host and Panellist Info

Guest Host Sue Arai is a queer, Sansei generation Japanese Canadian residing in southern Ontario and engaging in change through the practices of psychotherapy, disability advocacy, and research.

River Blondin Burt is a Dene-Scottish-Scandinavian artist and entrepreneur. Their work is grounded in an exploration of healing through co-creation with the earth. River believes that the radical act of being deeply in-relation “with” our other-than-human relations is active social rebellion, and a pathway for transformative personal, and collective healing.

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed race Yonsei writer and mental health educator from Scarborough. She is a doctoral student in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto with a debut novel coming out with HarperCollins in 2023.

Jotika Chaudhary Samant is a Queer Glitter Femme. Her ancestral lands are Fiji & India. She identifies as a racialized settler. She is an Expressive Arts Therapist passionate about supporting BIPoC to (re)connect into their bodies & nervous system through arts creation. She is chronically ill and an interdisciplinary artist who uses visual art & songpoetry to ground herself and cope with trauma, heartache and oppression.

We are grateful to Hapa Collaborative, The Bulletin (JCCA), ElementIQ, SFU David Lam Centres, The Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council and City of Vancouver for their financial and in-kind support of this series.

Resources shared by the panelists:

From Leanne:
DSM II: Asian American Edition – https://www.aalrmag.org/shop/p/open-in-emergency
InkWell Workshops – http://www.inkwellworkshops.com/
Connected in Creation – http://www.inkwellworkshops.com/shop/connected-in-creation
Brilliance is the Clothing I Wear – https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459747708-brilliance-is-the-clothing-i-wear
Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre – https://newdenver.ca/nikkei-internment-memorial-centre/
Being Japanese Canadian: Reflections on a Broken World – https://www.rom.on.ca/en/exhibitions-galleries/exhibitions/being-japanese-canadian
Mata Ashita Season 2 registration – https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mata-ashita-the-japanese-canadian-writing-circle-season-2-tickets-168343358517
Return (Mata Ashita zine) – https://msha.ke/mataashita/#zine
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong – https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/605371/minor-feelings-by-cathy-park-hong/
You can find me on Instagram @leannetoshiko

From River:
Big Magic

https://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/big-magic-creative-living-beyond-fear/242340?refId=38712&gclid=Cj0KCQjws4aKBhDPARIsAIWH0JUnMiPVXiBG-psHD3sf4Ybba5NA940NUjJ2j3Ze97655KmvF5njSSEaAgQiEALw_wcB
Rising Strong
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Rising-Strong-Audiobook/B0713XPTDG
Cassandra Speaks
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Cassandra-Speaks-Audiobook/B083L9V21B
Mother Night
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Mother-Night-Audiobook/B071F5W9GH
Rage Becomes Her
https://www.amazon.ca/Rage-Becomes-Her-Power-Womens/dp/1501189557
The Science Of the Sacred

https://www.audible.ca/pd/The-Science-of-the-Sacred-Audiobook/B082344HS1

Inner Engineering
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Inner-Engineering-Audiobook/B078RV6DTX
Becoming Animal
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Becoming-Animal-Audiobook/B073SDP57V
Braiding Sweetgrass
https://www.audible.ca/pd/Braiding-Sweetgrass-Audiobook/B072LKBXPV

From Jotika
My info www.JotikaHealingArts.com
@Jotika_HealingArts
@JotikArt
Resources for BIPoC Therapists and wellness resources www.HealinginColour.com
melannie gayle monoceros- @melanniemonoceros
Jaz whitford- @dust.n.dirt
Melanin Risisng Apparel- https://www.melaninrisingapparel.com/
KeAloha- https://linktr.ee/iamKeAloha
Beads for Indigenous Femmes @Beads for Femmes
ARC community school- https://arccommunity.ca/
Mia Mingus -https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/
Sonya Rene Taylor- https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com/
Resmaa Menakem -https://www.resmaa.com/
Peernet- http://peernetbc.com/
Seen podcast- https://www.seenthepodcast.com/
Anna Soole – https://www.annasoole.com/