Identity Consciousness for Successful Collaboration
Hannah’s conversation with Wilmi Dippenaar from the Seven Passes Initiative in South Africa illuminates strategies for how students of the Child and Adolescent Global Mental Health Course can foster effective collaborations with NGO partners and affiliated communities. In their discussion, they touch on themes that are highly relevant to my group’s collaboration with Heal Historical Trauma in Arizona, as well as Heal Historical Trauma’s initiatives at large. In particular, examining identity consciousness through a multi-dimensional approach stands out as being of utmost importance and a core component for successful partnership.
On one level, identity consciousness involves understanding your own intentions. Wilmi encourages us to ask ourselves, “from where am I interacting?” She suggests that other people will often pick up on well-meaning intentions, saying that “people will find kindness if there’s kindness,” and they will “find grace if there’s grace.” However, positive intentions and awareness of these intentions is just a sliver of the equation.
Another component of identity consciousness involves considering how your actions will be received in context. For example, Wilma and Hannah discuss that folks often carry intentions of racial and social justice when embarking on mental health work; but in order for those aims to be effective, it is imperative to recognize the differences between social movements in different places. Despite our shared nationality, social justice looks different in Arizona than it does in New York. Identity consciousness in this regard asks me to examine how I can understand and support the social justice initiatives prioritized by indigenous voices in Arizona.
Wilmi and Hannah also touch on why it is key to question how one’s own identity may be perceived, and they emphasize a need for personal acknowledgement about these perceptions. In the context of supporting teachers at Little Singer Community School with Heal Historical Trauma as a New School graduate student, I represent colonial power. It feels important to note that this representation is two-fold: I represent Western/colonizer/mainstream knowledge/perspective/experience, and I also hold a position of power because of it. Identity consciousness leads me to acknowledge that my ancestors oppressed the ancestors of those I aim to serve; and despite my desire for change, mainstream systems and fellow mainstream society members continue to oppress native peoples through countless forms of inequity. Wilmi and Hannah suggest that ongoing collaboration can lead to meaningful conversations about cultural differences, though they recommend collectively establishing trust and shared values first. While I aspire to build relationships within this community, right now my group and I are still in early stages of collaboration with Heal Historical Trauma and do not have any other contact with Navajo community members. As self-determinism is vital for Native American social justice and culture-focused initiatives, I wonder how to help community members feel empowered to carry their culture, ideas, and ways of learning and healing forward. I want to learn more about the ways Navajo and scientific methodologies overlap and understand their current systems (e.g. classroom cultures, teacher trainings, etc.) so that we can consider how to contribute something sustainable and in line with their existing strengths.
Identity consciousness also reminds me to acknowledge that my colonial identity places me in a position of power. Reckoning with my power involves active reflection and questioning of my own judgment. On one hand, it feels simple to acknowledge that my power is undeserved because I am not an active participant in the community. On the other hand, it feels difficult to fully excavate how this inherited power has influenced my thinking processes. To this end, becoming more conscious of my identity means acknowledging that I may give my own thoughts and ideas an undue level of authority. To internally redistribute power, I must prioritize what the community members say they need over what I perceive their needs to be. My education and my socio-political research gives me ideas for how to help, but genuine support comes in the form of giving power back to the people, to value their interpretation of their needs over my own. This construct could influence the design of my group’s deliverable — for example, we could intentionally leave room for interpretation of the materials we develop so that facilitators and/or educators can take ownership and use the deliverable in the way(s) they see fit.
As I consider how to foster successful collaboration and build an effective deliverable for Heal Historical Trauma with my team, I am encouraged to raise my identity consciousness throughout the process by questioning my intentions, acknowledging my perceived identity and position of power, and considering how my actions will be received in context. With raised consciousness, I hope to help conceptualize a deliverable that a) is built on the words of community members, b) reorganizes their existing tools (as opposed to bringing in familiar Western strategies that may not resonate or be effective within this community), and c) allows for flexibility and/or feels familiar so that community members can claim it as their own.
