Feedback for “Holistic Healers” and “Wellness Practitioners”
Feedback for “Holistic Healers” and “Wellness Practitioners”
*Trigger Warning* Racism, imperialism, Hinduphobia, whiteness, white supremacy, cultural appropriation of literally everything Hindu and other Indigenous cultures
I watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of articles on natural healing. It can be difficult and I grit my teeth through a lot of it. I pay attention to these outlets of information because I want to know what healing methods they’re culturally appropriating and what information they’re gatekeeping. This is important because cultural appropriation is an ancient tactic of imperialism and it continues to harm Indigenous people around the world.
This is an email I wrote to one docu-series team about their series on ancient holistic healing after I suffered through episode after episode:
To: [Insert colonizer email addresses here]
“Here's some feedback:
One of the most difficult things about watching this series and other series like this one, as an Indigenous person, is to see non-Indigenous people speak as authorities on Indigenous modalities as if there are no Indigenous people around to speak as authorities on these subjects and as if colonizers didn't try hard to wipe out these modalities through the genocide of those Indigenous peoples.
This series didn't acknowledge any of that while enjoying all the benefits of those Indigenous peoples cultures and healing wisdom.
Watching a white man talk about vastu was an insult to say the least but he was just one of many insults in this series to Indigenous peoples and their ancestors.
This last episode was the most painful to me because it was an example of what happens when an Indigenous person panders to colonizers. Sneha Raichada managed to never mention the word "Hindu" in her entire talk despite how every single word she was saying was of the Hindu tradition from Hindu ancestors. The Vedas she talks about are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. The sages she talked about were Hindu sages. Sneha's behavior is called Hinduphobia and it's not her Hinduphobia, it's the Hinduphobia of your team and the audience that she has to perform for. She literally has to erase her own ancestors because of your Hinduphobia. This Hinduphobia erases the true origin of all of these practices including yoga, ayurveda, pranayama, vastu, urine therapy, and on and on. This entire series has used the terms "eastern philosophy" and "Indian culture" every time the speaker was really talking about Hinduism. Thanks for erasing the history, the people, the ancestors, the colonial violence, the genocide. Do you have any idea how many Hindus sacrificed their lives so that our healing practices could survive to this day? Do you have any idea how many Hindus are STILL being slaughtered for practicing their traditional healing practices? Have you ever paid attention to the violence Hindus suffer around the world? There is a genocide happening all over the world of Hindus but here are you extracting the benefits of that genocide.
Please examine your Hinduphobia. This Hinduphobia will destroy the spiritual strength of any healing you try to do. You think you're helping others when you're actually traumatizing them with your colonizer behavior.
I strongly encourage your entire team to watch this series so that you can understand what I'm saying. And don't react with fragility. Fragility is a violent feeling that comes up in the bodies of colonizers when they're being called out but they don't want to stop their harmful behavior. You can't heal spiritually until you are honest with yourself about the toxicity of your entitlement and colonizer privilege. This is a fact and you will never get that taste out of your mouth no matter how much tongue scaping you do.
You're trying so hard to help people heal but you have no idea the damage you're doing to others and yourselves. You are paying a spiritual price for this, you just don't realize it.”
Come to an educational class to learn about harm these colonizers are doing to Indigenous Hindus through cultural appropriation and the erasure of our ancestors and history. The online class is happening now over the next 8 weeks so register immediately to attend and catch up.
You can find all present and future events on this topic on this page.
Resources
8 weeks class on Hindu Colonial Trauma (event, register now)
1,000 Years of Hindu Colonial Trauma (presentation series)
What the Empire doesn’t want you to know
Magic Frequency Theory?? Urgh!
My Hindus Ancestors forced to fight Britain’s WWI and WWII
Jewish Ally explains why she left white yoga
Get out of the colonizing western yoga industry
Hindu Multiverse Culturally Appropriated for Profit
Racist Hinduphobes in Seattle at it again
Hinduphobic Disability Justice
I don’t like International Day of Yoga
PM Modi, Indian Hindu women saw what you did today
Self-Care amidst Political and Pandemic Upheaval
White People, Mother Earth, and the Devil
