Transformative Justice
Transformative Justice
MY APPROACH
Transformative Justice (TJ) is to Justice what mutual aid is to capitalism. While mutual aid defies individualism-based capitalism by creating networks of care and generosity, and therefore addresses the root causes of inequity capitalist societies have created and sustained, TJ seeks to bring radical healing and justice, as it aims to break down violence and trauma and turn it into agency and accountability so that care becomes an active and automatic response in each and every interaction.
Transformative Justice (TJ) calls for our capacity to acknowledge & face conflict courageously. We can not be abolitionist AND conflict avoidant. For a lot of us however, conflicts activate our nervous system in ways that often feel dangerous and unsafe. How can we practice making more space for conflict in the body, as well as witnessing & honoring the wisdom of our trauma & resilience responses?
I am specifically interested in the Somatics of TJ, accountability, conflict & repair. How do we practice having generative conflicts? Knowing that rupture is unavoidable, how can we embody repair?
I offer consultancy, workshops and trainings for collectives, organizations or folks who want to face conflict in a generative way. Contact me here for more info!
"TJ was created by and for many of these communities (e.g. indigenous communities, black communities, immigrant communities of color, poor and low-income communities, communities of color, people with disabilities, sex workers, queer and trans communities). It is important to remember that many of these people and communities have been practicing TJ in big and small ways for generations–trying to create safety and reduce harm within the dangerous conditions they were and are forced to live in. For example, undocumented immigrant women in domestic violence relationships, disabled people who are being abused by their caretakers and attendants, sex workers who experience sexual assault or abuse, or poor children and youth of color who are surviving child sexual abuse have long been devising ways to reduce harm, stay alive and create safety and healing outside of state systems, whether or not these practices have been explicitly named as 'transformative justice.'"- Mia Mingus
TJ is a framework created by marginalized communities of survivors of violence who did not and could not rely on institutional forms of "Justice" (courts, police...).
This framework, unlike the systems of "Justice" we know, calls for radical healing as it cares to address the roots of violence to break generational cycles of harm, using accountability as a tool of agency and repair, as well as centering the voices & healing of survivors instead of the punishment of harm-doers.