The course is coordinated by Sanne and she collaborates with several guest speakers. Balinese writer, community builder and lecturer Sonia Piscayanti is one of them.
We’re living in extraordinary times, at the tail end of a global pandemic that’s been affecting our lives already for over two years and in the aftermath of the global Black Lives Matter protests which had a ripple effect on systemic inequality awareness. At the same time, division in societies is growing.
All of these things ask us to reflect on our own position and decide how we can live our lives in a meaningful way. decoloniality looks at root causes and delves deeper into the context of anti-racism and inclusion.
Program
The course helps you to learn more about and deal with the topic of diversity, inclusion, and decoloniality, through six online modules with a small group of people from all around the world.
The program combines insights from working in inclusive media, studying decoloniality at the Maria Lugones Summerschool and at the University of Groningen summer school, joining yoga teacher trainings, Vipassana meditation courses, holistic lifestyle coaching training, and death doula course.
Week 1:
What is decoloniality? We discuss the basic framework for thinking decolonially, where decoloniality touches our own lives, and why it’s not enough to just talk about it but to actually do solid work.
Week 2:
Who controls the knowledge? We discuss the colonial matrix of power. Real knowledge is not knowing, it is understanding the pain of the other and listening to the silence of the other. We need to learn how to unlearn. We touch on the concepts of whiteness, white supremacy, white privilege, cultural appropriation and our own positionality.
Week 3:
How to not hide behind your objectivity? We discuss writing as a powerful act of renewing yourself. Writing is often considered an individual endeavour, so how to make it a communal effort? We take our own colonial wound as a starting point for a writing exercise. And we look into decolonizing our timeline.
Week 4:
Can we have an ethical life without suffering? We discuss the Law of Nature and how decoloniality is like the seed that cracks concrete. To reimagine our world without knowing or predicting the outcome we need to be able to feel uncomfortable. Bodily practices like Vipassana meditation and Yin Yoga help us do that.
Week 5:
Guest speaker Sonia Piscayanti. Sonia runs Komunitas Mahima in the North of Bali and shares her work in empowering Balinese women through poetry and writing and letting them be heard. She reflects on her own position in Balinese society. Besides community builder, Sonia is also a writer, a lecturer in English literature, a theatre maker, a partner and a mom.
Week 6:
“Coloniality is not over, it’s all over.” (Walter Mignolo). We will be sharing the results of the final assignment and discussing our ways forward.
Price and format
The fee will be calculated as 1/200th of the GDP per capita in 2019 in USD in the country where you’re from, as reported by the World Bank. If you need help calculating your fee, please reach out to me.
The course will be held online, with weekly Zoom live video calls of 2 hours, and an ongoing (during the course) Whatsapp group. Maximum group size: 6-8 people.
Who can join?
In general, the course is for anybody who wants to learn more about decoloniality. Sonia’s expertise in writing, mindfulness and poetry together with Sanne’s expertise in journalism make the course especially beneficial to everyone who works in the field of content creation.
In this course, we learn from each other. We are equal because we are different. And we share this knowledge with each other from a humbling position with respect for our teachers.
Nobody has a special position, everyone has a valuable position. We have to heal from the colonial wound together.
Dates
The next course throughout the year on different dates and in different timezones. Ask for information and book your spot by sending an email: Sanne at inclusivejournalism dot com.
Testimonials
“I’d been grappling for a while to find my place in a world that seemed to be telling me to step back and allow others who’d been afforded less privilege a chance to be seen. This approach didn’t appear to be doing much to increase diversity and though I want to be part of the solutions, not the problem, I didn’t know where I fit in and what I could do.
Sanne was the right person to help me with this adjustment, having come from a similar background and therefore understanding the difficulties of my position. I was able to explore and learn without judgement.
Through this course I was challenged to delve into my own roots and to find a sense of place in connection to the land where I was born and grew up. I’ve come away feeling more confident in myself and my role in our diverse world moving forward.”
Lucy Marinelli
“As a mixed-race person of color, Sanne has helped me to find more clarity on the insecurities about my identity and the cause of them. Her course was a safe space where I could dive deeper into the journey of understanding my position within the system. There was a good balance of personal sharing and receiving all of her knowledge about this topic. I liked that is was held in a group setting and that we were able to have discussions as participants among each other.”
Moenja Schijven
What I loved about the course with Sanne is that she has a broad perspective on anti-racism work. She includes all systems of oppression and explains how they all cooperate. She teaches the history of how things came to be as they are and also invited people of colour who currently do important work in this field as guest teachers. It was helpful that she pointed out the need for self-care while learning about this topic. I also liked how things were very practical, like looking at who you follow on social media and making that more diverse. I feel like this course was the perfect kickstart of my anti-racism journey.
Marianne van Dijk
Inclusive Journalism 
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