Oral traditions and collective healing through language and culture. Tija Andriamananjara interviewed.
Description
In this week’s episode, Tija speaks to us about oral traditions, reparative justice, the violence of colonisation, and how that generates intergenerational harms. We talk about the erasure of culture, the loss of language, and the role of storytelling, song, and intergenerational love and joy as part of the healing process. Tija emphasises the role of culture in addressing mental health and the intergenerational trauma of colonisation. We discuss the importance of storytelling to sustain oral history and keep the languages of colonised countries alive. Tija offers us a hopeful way forward for collective healing from the intergenerational harms of colonisation.
Tija Andriamananjara is a trauma informed senior social worker from Madagascar joining us from St Paul, Minnesota (US). Her experience and background include education, child development, mental health and human services. She was a visiting educator in Madagascar at a local NGO helping children and women facing domestic violence. Her graduate studies focused on social justice and reconciliation. Her graduate practicum included working with a 3-aged group of Native American kids, youth and women. Tija published 2 children’s books with songs solely in Malagasy in late 2023 and lastly in October of this year to promote her mother tongue and familial connections through reading at home.
If you’re interested to find out more about Tija’s work, take a look here:
Recent work:
- "Mahaliana ny Mianatra" {In Awe of Learning}
- "Kintana Mamiratra" {StarShine}
- Podcast episode about trauma
Recommended resources:
- Decolonizing Therapy - Jennifer Mullan PsyD
- My Grandmother's hands - Resmaa Menakem
- Healing the Soul Wound - Eduardo Duran
- Mitaraina ny tany - Andry Andraina, 1979
- Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - Judith Herman, 1992
- The Ancestor Syndrome - Anne Ancelin Schutzenberger, 1998
- The Myth of Normal - Gabor Maté, September 2022
- The Wild Edge of Sorrow - Francis Weller, September 2015
- Healing Collective Trauma - Thomas Hübl and Julie Jordan Avritt, November 2020
- Nonviolent Communication - Marshall Rosenberg , 2003
United States
