The Process of Unlearning

Listening to Wilmi’s video brought complex feelings to the surface. Between the desire to help others, and the damage that we as a Western society can inflict on other communities, uncomfortable feelings started to rise. Nevertheless, it is these exact conversations that we need to address for the process of unlearning certain preconceived ideas and biases that individuals might have, and actually be able to contribute towards helping others. Furthermore, Wilmi and Hannah talked about the importance of social justice and how to approach it, explaining how to be aware of the differences in social justice within Western concepts. Nonetheless, hearing this frustrated me, even though it is a leap within that perspective, personally I feel like it is not enough. Moreover, the contradictions between wanting to help and the harm that can be done by doing this, made me feel defeated, I wish there was more action we could take to try to amend the damage that has been done. However, these ideas were exactly what Wilmi was talking about, how communities are searching to protect their society from Western knowledge and the “white savior” behavior that we can impose. Thus, when Wilmi explained that true and honest communication is key to resolving things and openly addressing them, many questions came to mind. How can we have open conversations not hurting others in our current cancel culture? What can we do to be “trauma-informed but not trauma-imposing”? Which boundaries could be important for people from every side to feel safe?

Moreover, my main considerations regarding the topic are centered on the process and concept of unlearning, where cultural humility is key. Also, the importance of respect and honest communication between researchers and the community, we have to practice active and mindful listening. Regarding how it might apply to the work with the NGO, this lecture was significant. The fact that we are working with the Dine community of Native Americans, as a group we need to be aware of our intersectionality and the privilege and biases that come with us. They are a community severely affected by unresolved intergenerational trauma and the consequences that might bring, such as PTSD and drug use. Thus as Wilmi manifested, awareness is going to be fundamental in our work. Additionally, I wanted to emphasize an idea that our supervisor for the project and Wilmi communicated especially regarding students, “If we see only the worse, it destroys the capacity to do something”. In other words, we need to change our perspective and narrative and focus on the strengths of the people, not what the problems are. Overall, this lecture was extremely eye-opening, it taught me not only about how to behave with others, but it made me realize certain unconscious feelings that I was not aware of. The complexity of the subject and not wanting to hurt anyone made me want to escape as a reaction, but that is exactly the problem. We must have those uncomfortable conversations to learn and grow towards a more just society while maintaining people’s dignity. Even though I have more questions than answers right now, I am motivated to start the process of unlearning and try to contribute towards helping people appropriately and kindly.