Since August 2024, I have been working with the Center for Public Impact’s Collective.
Our cohort has been investigating ideas around “Decolonizing Development.” The first part evolved around developing our own learning inquiry. I based my learning inquiry on my personal experience coming from an immigrant background as a South Asian heritage woman, my experience as a professional dancer, as well as my knowledge from working with NGOs, International Organizations and corporate consulting firms.
The Framework called the Water of System Change2 helped us organize our ideas and inquiries, that raised questions such as, “Where does structural change really start? Is it top-down or bottom-up?” etc. The Water of Systems Change is divided into three parts: 1. Explicit or structural change that include policies, practices and resource flows, 2. Semi-explicit or Relational change that encompasses relationships and connections, as well as power dynamics and finally at the root, we have 3. Implicit or transformative change that include mental models.
The mental model was particularly intriguing to me because I noticed that as a child of immigrant parents, I was an outcome of those structures that I had to obey. My ideas and thoughts became colonized by living in a society that enforces such structures, that also includes my career in dance. We are taught Ballet as a foundational technique while classical dance forms from other parts of the world, such as Indian classical dances or African dance techniques are labelled as ‘other.’ As a professional dancer, I have to follow the Western guidelines of being proficient in ballet before I learn ‘other’ skills in order to qualify for paying and full-time dance jobs.
My next thought was that maybe self-acceptance is the key to decolonization as that may change the way I see myself in the world, and then maybe as a collective that would change the way we see and perceive the world, ultimately leading to a change in our actions and thus structural change. So, for my learning inquiry, I asked, “How to decolonize the body/self from imposed ideas, beliefs and structures to initiate structural change?” With that in mind, I designed a movement workshop experiment and executed it on December 16th 2024. My hypothesis was that the first step to bring about structural change is to decolonize the mind and body, which requires a rewiring of the brain.
Curious about the outcomes and what I learned? Follow these links:
https://vimeo.com/reshmadanse/cpicollective1
And here are the links to the CPI Publications:
- Experimenting, learning, and reimagining aid 🌍 by CPI’s Collective
With just five years until 2030, the development sector is at a crossroads. Read on Substack
- Pilot insights: Thinking, convening, and doing differently 🚀 by CPI’s Collective
A deep dive into key insights and reflections from our pilot launch of CPI’s Collective where we have been designing for emergence, experimentation, and collaboration. Read on Substack