Yellowknife Dene First Nations in Yellowknife decolonzing mental wellness, through Stage Left's applied Theatre of the Oppressed practice.
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THE NETWORK > DISABILITY JUSTICEChanging the DDMSTC* Arts Framework:
from Access to Justice to Decolonization Disability Justice has the power to not only challenge our thinking about access, but to fundamentally change the way we understand organizing and how we fight for social change. (Mia Mingus) Leaving Evidence: Transformative Justice | Disability Justice |
VISION: DDMAAC cultivates conduits of cultural affinity, artistic autonomy and disability justice in Canada's Deaf/ Disability/ Mad Arts domain,
and promotes the collective interests of artists whose lived experience of disablement advances artistic and aesthetic non-normativity.
and promotes the collective interests of artists whose lived experience of disablement advances artistic and aesthetic non-normativity.
CULTURAL sovereigntyThe Disability Justice Network is an autonomous caucus** within the national DDMAAC network that rallies for culturally diverse contributors to the DDMSTC Arts domain, especially those who remain excluded from the positions of DDMSTC Arts influence: FNMIIA2BAQTAOC*** disruptors who also live with some form of impairment.
Core members of the Disability Justice Network are currently focused on decolonizing urban-centric approaches to DDMSTC Arts advocacy, western constructs of impairment, and normative notions of artistic excellence. **Caucus: A group within a larger political body, which meets independently to organize autonomous strategy and actions. ***FNMIIA2BAQTAOC: First Nation, Metis, Inuit; Indigenous, Aboriginal; 2-Spirited; Black, African diaspora; Queer; Transgendered; Artists of Colour. (This is our adaptation of an American anti-oppressive practice framing; made out of respect for the Original Peoples in Canada, in honour Truth & Reconciliation, and in alignment with Canadian Human Rights.) |
Operational autonomyThe Disability Justice Network takes a position of cultural sovereignty, and thus operates autonomously, from Stage Left's broader DDMAAC network.
However, DDMAAC and the Disability Justice Network work in solidarity to achieve a shared goal of centering disability justice in the DDMSTC* Arts domain: The prioritization of anti-racism, decolonization, and non-normalization in social justice organizing among folx who live with any/ all forms of impairment – innate, acquired, social/ relational...). Stage Left provides fees for the Disability Justice Network's labour, wherever possible. The Disability justice Network saves itself labour by using Stage Left's established infrastructure to secure additional resources – wherever desired and appropriate (without any financial return to Stage Left). |
*DDMSTC Arts: D/deaf/ hard of hearing; Disabled/ person with a disability; Sick/ spoonie/ survivor; Traumatized; Colonized....
