Green Healthcare – Collective Wellbeing for People and Planet

Abstract

Background

As global climate change accelerates, the crisis of species survival invites holistic ways of knowing. There is a resurgence of engagement in Indigenous spiritual wellbeing systems as part of anti-colonial liberation movements. Green collective wellbeing systems (GreenCoWell) offer opportunities to heal both people and the planet, addressing the notion of separation between life forms.

Objective

We plan to study and elaborate upon 6 BIPOC health practices based on interconnection, including family constellation healing (Zulu nation, Southern Africa), fa (Ghana), yoga (India), shinrinyoku (Japan), Danza Azteca (Central America), and one practice to be identified in the course of the study. From a feminist, anti-racism and decolonial lens, our work aims to support ways of knowing which originate from the Global South and Indigenous communities.

Methods

Applying a participatory action research approach, we will blend qualitative and arts-based methods to portray 6 global GreenCoWell. Healers from each tradition will be interviewed separately and will engage in a collective dialogue on the desire, need, and methods for proliferating GreenCoWell systems.

Results

The results of this project will be a film, poems, stories, academic products, social media messages, and a manifesto emanating from the collective dialogue.

Conclusion

This mixed methods arts-based, feminist, anti-racism, and decolonial project brings together healers from 6 traditions, representing a novel approach to addressing climate change. Those who practice GreenCoWell engage in environmental conservation. Our long term aspiration is for more people to experience mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing through these and related GreenCoWell and take action for climate justice.

Background – Climate Injustice and Human Illness

Climate change has impacted virtually every part of the world. Floods, fires, extreme weather emergencies, and other crises have illustrated the seriousness of human activity on Earth. Pollution of the air, water, and soil contributes to species disappearance and suffering. ¹ Human health reflects these climate catastrophes. Illnesses such as eco-anxiety, asthma, cardiovascular disease, cancers, hearing loss, and other conditions are exacerbated by environmental crises.^2,3

Neither environmental degradation nor human illness are equitably distributed. Climate injustices often follow along the fault lines of socioeconomic injustices, so that people who did the least environmental destruction often bear the brunt of the consequences. Extreme floods in Pakistan during 2022, for example, have severely impacted over 33 million people, primarily those in rural communities who live in poverty.^4,5 Youth-led demonstrations, orchestrated by Climate Action Pakistan, urged governments to take action on climate change. ⁶ Those in the Global South and communities of color all over the world live with the reality of environmental racism, which has poisoned lands in and around places where Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color (BIPOC) live. ⁷ Like in Pakistan, environmental anti-racism actions are prolific in other parts of the world. The Sipekne’katik First Nations, for instance, when not consulted about the storage of natural gas in underground salt caverns near the Shubenacadia River in Nova Scotia, collaborated with groups such as Grassroots Grandmothers. By 2021, Alton Gas canceled this project. ⁸

While climate activists in the Global South have been calling for international action to address the borderless nature of climate injustices, little willingness on the part of most governments in the Global North was taken until disasters interfered with their daily life. North America and Western Europe now experience wildfire seasons unlike any time in the recent past; this calamity may be one of the catalysts towards climate justice cooperation across borders. Though more work is being done globally to mitigate climate change, much of it ignores the underlying philosophies of domination that led to climate crises. ⁹

Addressing the root causes of climate change offers the most significant promise because it will change knowledge and attitudes, which will lead to changing practices. Consuming to excess is one such cause, because uncurbed labor, transport, marketing, and other processes increase carbon emissions, contributing to global warming. ¹⁰ Within extractive neoliberal and globalizing capitalism, excessive global consumption, proliferating oil industries and rising carbon emissions are causes of global destruction which impact human life on Earth. ¹¹

Many Indigenous wellbeing practices embody and promote belief systems where humans have a symbiotic and balanced relationship with one another and Earth. ¹² Indigenous wellbeing practices offer avenues to address the root causes of the climate change crises. ¹² Little work has been done, however, to bring wellbeing facilitators from different traditions together to glean the interest and methods for widespread promotion of these practices. Through a collaborative exploratory design, this study ¹ will document critical insights and understandings of the similarities and differences in awareness, promotion, protection, and integration of diverse global health practices. ¹³ An underlying objective of this project is to center the voices of Indigenous wellbeing facilitators in exploring the question, “What should and can be done now to effectively promote Indigenous healing practices for the collective wellbeing of humans and the planet?”

Green Collective Wellbeing Systems

The significance which is in unity is an eternal wonder

–Rabindranath Tagore ¹⁴

Green holistic health schools of thought vary from region to region, but have more similarities than differences. The following principles unite them:

• entities and systems in the universe, including humans and the social, cultural, and spiritual environment, exist as a unified whole that is dynamically interrelated. ¹⁵

• a whole is more than the sum of its parts, and thus, cannot be understood by the isolated examination of its separate parts.^16,17

• matter is interlinked, interconnected, and dynamic; it is constantly changing, and it is this transformation that denotes time ¹⁸

• malfunctions are understood and treated in the context of the social, cultural, and spiritual environment; as treatment of body, mind, and spirit are considered integral ¹⁸

Thus, holistic worldviews focus not exclusively on the body or organism but on the larger world. Most holistic schools of thought explicitly connect the wellbeing of humans to animals, plants, and ecosystems — air, soil, water, etc. Interdependence of species is an essential aspect of GreenCoWell. There is an understanding that when water, air, and soil are healthy that all species will be healthy. The concept of reincarnation is also green, because human beings have been incarnated as other species; with embodied knowledge of the interchangeability of humans to other life forms, comes an implicit desire to protect and preserve all life.

These philosophical concepts are usually associated with spiritual or religious thoughtforms. Yogic and related South Asian cosmological paradigms, as an example, posit that one of the most essential illusions is that of separation. The following passage exemplifies global perspectives on holism:

The most important characteristic of the Eastern worldview — one could almost say the essence of it — is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. All things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimate reality. The Eastern traditions constantly refer to this ultimate, indivisible reality which manifests itself in all things, and of which all things are parts. It is called Brahman in Hinduism, Dharmakaya in Buddhism, Tao in Taoism. Because it transcends all concepts and categories, Buddhists also call it Tathata, or Suchness. ¹⁹

These views are echoed in other cosmologies. In West African worldviews, there is a recognition that the health of the planet is connected and linked to the health of the community in that there is wisdom in observing the physical environment for how to relate to one another and the planet to ensure our mutual health.

Listen more often to things than to beings, the fire’s voice is heard, hear the voice of the water, listen in the wind to the bush, it is the ancestor’s breath. Those who are dead are never gone, they are in the shadows that are thick as the night, they are in the shadows that are in the fire, they are in the shadows that sparkle in the water […]. Listen more to things than to beings, the fire’s voice is heard, hear the voice of the water, listen to the wind to the bush, it is the ancestor’s breath.

–Birago Diop ²⁰

The Sankofa bird symbolizes one aspect of Diop’s prose -- the importance of ancestors. The Sankofa bird flies forward while looking backward in homage to those who have gone before us. The past encompasses ancestors and the cycles of the planet. Listening to messages from both these sources has helped many communities to move forward in a sustainable fashion, just like the bird who is flying forward but looking back Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Drawing of Sankofa bird based on sculptures by Abdul Aziz Mohamadu ²¹ ; drawing by Harleen Randhawa.

Indigenous philosophies from the Americas are similar. Social harmony and connection to land influence individual wellbeing in several Indigenous cosmovisions. Danza Azteca ceremonies, for example, are rooted in philosophies of interconnection to Earth, Sky, Water, and the pre-colonial notions that human beings came from corn. ²² Some of the dances evoke corn as the precursor to human beings. ²³ Dance is considered one way to honor the sacredness of the Earth and other elements, and the pre-colonial leader, Nezahualcoyotl, is often cited as the inspiration for dancing as a form of reverence to life itself. ²⁴ Danza Azteca also offers possibilities of re-negotiating female power through symbolic parts of the dance form. ²⁵ The notion that water, a most feminine element, is connected in all its forms, is embodied in this poem by Colombian artist Carolina Caycedo ²⁶ :

“we flow with the blood of the mother feeding our sisters and brothers and reaching the oceans

where we connect with other rivers and lagoons, in one body of water

And we carry the blood of our mother

cleaning her

soothing her

wetting her limbs

cooling her down”

Similar to these thoughtforms, holistic principles maintain that the body has an innate capacity to heal itself and to assist the body in its natural tendency toward balance. Unity and oneness through diversity are common threads in many systems of thought that undergird health systems. Many biopsychosocial-ecological models of health and wellness are lodged in sacred cosmological perceptions of the supernatural. ²⁷

Within some African cultures, for example, health is defined through a multi-dimensional understanding which encompasses the self, the cosmic world, and the social world. Health and healing processes which engage people’s loved ones and spiritual values often lead to recovery. ²⁸ Traditional healers within Zulu practices incorporate nature, ancestors, connection to spiritual forces, and an underlying understanding of Ubuntu. Ubuntu concepts posit that divine energy is transmitted from one generation to the next through ancestors, meditation, other practices, and all entities within the universe are interconnected.^29,30

Unity and oneness are also captured in Middle Eastern worldviews, as expressed in this poem:

Farsi Couplet:

Mun tu shudam tu mun shudi,mun tun shudam tu jaan shudi

Taakas na guyad baad azeen, mun deegaram tu deegari

English Translation:

I have become you, and you me,

I am the body, you soul;

So that no one can say hereafter,

That you are someone, and me someone else.

-Amir Khusro ³¹

Wellbeing is anchored within concepts of personhood that uphold notions of kindness, hospitality, generosity, and goodness to others, as expressed by Madan Lal Goel:

“We spring from one source. Differences and divisions are unreal. The belief that we originate from one common source has ethical implications: it leads to a kinder and gentler world.” ³²

Harmonious relationships between humans and other life forms are thus crucial to good health. Replanting ecological ideas into contemporary notions of health is particularly important given current climate injustices. They have been part of most Global South perceptions of health for millennia. In Zulu cultural tradition, for instance, the land is connected to ancestors, and the burial place of the ancestors is the current homestead, all of which are sacred. ³³

Belief in the sacredness of intergenerational ancestral connections underpins this complex wellbeing web. Many traditional health knowledge systems were originally lodged within traditional forms of spirituality. These notions have persisted, sometimes in new forms, ³⁴ although unbroken traditions exist in Kerala and other parts of the world, meaning these traditions have been uninterrupted by colonialism.

Perceptions of illness are also embedded within environmental, spiritual, and relational frameworks. Empirical data collected in Soweto, South Africa, found that the Almighty or nature spirits were attributed to the ability to give and take health away. ³⁵

Similarly, in the prepatriarchal era, approximately 6000 years ago, all forms of life and all experiences were considered connected by one life energy. An energetic alliance was believed to link life’s spiritual and material aspects. Women ² were the original healers, midwives, herbalists, mythmakers, spiritual, psychic, and death guides. ³⁶

This study will also explore Indigenous healers’ explication of the process by which patients/clients come to embody the concepts of interdependence, balance, and stewardship of the earth. Yoruba traditional belief systems, for example, have resulted in reforestation and preservation efforts by those who participate in traditional ceremonies. We have reasonable assurance that these kinds of spiritual practices can lead to care for the Earth. ³⁷

Rationale

Collective systems of wellbeing, which are lodged within philosophical constructs of interconnectedness, offer people the opportunity to have a deep, embodied understanding of unity and oneness. Through impactful wellbeing experiences, people recognize the profound truth about human existence – that all life is one family, and an injury to one is an injury to all.

Interconnectedness and wholeness foster an abundance mindset over scarcity, leading to a lesser need to extract materials and resources from others and the Earth.

The rationale for this project is based on reorienting the current dominant paradigm of separation to one of unity. Collective healing practices offer people the profound opportunity for embodied knowledge (not just theoretical) of connection to others and the Earth, which leads to knowledge, attitudes, and practices that support climate justice. ³⁸ People who feel close to the Earth partake in activities such as planting trees, walking more, reducing paper and plastic use, and buying local free range unsprayed organic food.

Collective healing practices are much less explored than 1:1 healing practices, and some of the scholarly literature is written from a colonial and Eurocentric framework. Our work is rooted in decolonial, anti-racism, and feminist scholarly frameworks that seek to overturn white supremacy, misogyny, appropriation, and the profiteering of global Indigenous health systems by dominant forces. What needs to be better known is the impact of the coming together of healers from different Indigenous traditions to dialogue about the possibilities for promoting, integrating, and protecting Indigenous collective wellbeing practices.

Research Question

This study seeks to collaborate with Indigenous healers from 6 collective wellbeing traditions to create an inter-epistemological dialogue. The overarching question is, how can global Indigenous green forms of collective wellbeing improve human and planetary wellbeing? Sub-questions include, but are not limited to:

In experiencing wellbeing through GreenCoWell, how do people become motivated to take action for climate justice?

According to the practitioners of the GreenCoWells, how can more people gain access to them with the ultimate end of better human health and better planetary health?

○ By bringing practitioners together, how can we catalyze ideas to hasten the pace of climate justice through these practices together?

○ What novel ideas can be generated through the global gathering of GreenCoWell practitioners with the ultimate aim of improving human and planetary health?

What role do BIPOC GreenCoWell play in decolonizing public and environmental health?

This project will focus on collective healing practices rooted in philosophies of the interconnectedness of humans and the planet. We are thus seeking to highlight those practices that promote green mind-body-spirit wellbeing of groups of people.

Collective Healing and Wellbeing Systems

We will identify, explore, analyze, and represent our learnings of collective wellbeing systems across the globe. Some people need healing 1:1 and as part of a collective. Like others, we consider GreenCoWell to be potential pathways to transforming individual and social behavior related to the environment:

“Collective healing—drawing on the power of relationships to heal together—is an approach whose time has come. In the context of systems change, collective healing supports individuals and groups within a system to distinguish and repair harm done to them and/or by them to others; transform the destructive energy left behind by trauma into higher awareness, compassion, and learning; and participate in finding new and more creative ways to thrive and collaborate with others in changing the system’s behavior.” ³⁹

The small amount of literature on the connection between GreenCoWell and environmental justice shows some links between the practices and environmental actions. A few articles on Indigenous healing practices, for example, have found that people who have experienced them are more likely to recycle, ⁴⁰ more likely to consume less, ⁴¹ more likely to actively and consciously decrease their carbon footprint, ⁴² and feel a deep connection to Earth.^40,42

A study that examined the practice of yoga to environmental actions found that those who practiced yoga were committed to reducing use of energy resources and consuming less products that are known pollutants; those who practiced yoga for longer periods of time were even more committed to environmental justice actions such as participation in environmental events, attending meetings of environmental organization, seeking more information on how to address environmental pollution. ⁴³

Of the traditions we will study, only one will be described here for brevity. Family Constellation Healing, commonly known as Family Constellation Therapy, is a Zulu practice which has proliferated to many regions of the world. People choose this type of healing for health concerns, workplace conflict, relationship difficulties, and other problems. Traditionally, within Southern Africa, they appear in front of a Zulu healer with a group of friends or family. ⁴⁴ The healer conducts the ceremony, inviting the healee’s ancestors to assist. Through role playing and other exercises, the healee dialogues with those assembled, who assume characters of people who are related to the problem. Each constellation experience is unique and varies greatly, but the aforementioned main elements lead to some kind of resolution.

In some literature, credit is given to a white male missionary who went to South Africa and learned about this practice from Zulu shamans.^33,44 Other literature gives credit to Alfred Adler for inventing this form of therapy. ⁴⁴ There is limited scholarly literature on the fact that Zulu shamans created this technique, and that is one of the reasons why it is included in this project – to honor traditional health knowledge from the Global South.

Family Constellation Therapy requires further research to make robust conclusions, yet researchers generally find that participants gain mental health benefits. ⁴⁵ While no adverse effects of Family Constellation Healing have been reported, researchers have found short, intermediate, and long-term benefits for both clinical and nonclinical populations. Participants have reported improvements in psychological distress, motivational incongruence, social relationships, and overall goal attainment. ⁴⁶

A randomized clinical trial (RCT) examined the efficacy of Family Constellation Healing on personal social systems as they relate to the experience of belonging, autonomy, accord, and confidence. Findings indicate that those in the intervention group, compared to the waitlist group, had significantly improved their experience within their social systems. ⁴⁶ Another RCT investigated the efficacy of nonrecurring Family Constellation Healing on psychological and mental health. The researchers found that psychological distress and motivational incongruence were markedly lessened for the intervention group. ⁴⁷

A premise of this project is that people whose wellbeing is transformed through this kind of process will begin to understand, in an embodied fashion, that we are all connected, partly because their healing was done in a group setting and ancestors were evoked. Once interconnection is profoundly embraced, then action to repair damage to other lifeforms becomes possible and even inevitable.

Methods

We will apply participatory action research (PAR) to arts-based methods and qualitative interviews to individually interview and then convene healers from 6 different Indigenous healing traditions and engage them in dialogue to explore the central research question. Interviews will be done with 3 healers for each of the 6 healing practices, meaning we will recruit a total of eighteen healers.

PAR, conceptualized by Orlando Fals Borda, integrates scholarly pursuits of knowledge creation with community wisdom. ⁴⁸ PAR focuses on research that aims to elicit action, where participants are critical elements of data collection and analysis while helping decide the action to follow. ⁴⁹ PAR also aims to equalize power relationships in the research process. ⁴⁹ PAR calls for those who are the focus to be actively involved in the research process. ⁴⁹ PAR is resonant with the works of intersectional feminists such as Kimberle Crenshaw, ⁵⁰ Hannah Bechiche, ⁵¹ Hazel Biana, ⁵² Patricia Hill Collins, ⁵³ and others. This project thus takes into account the overlapping importance of human rights for people who have been colonized, those who experience racism, and those who experience gender oppression. PAR pursues liberatory outcomes for the communities who are the heart of their studies.

Statement of Positionality

Dr Farah Shroff: As a Kenyan born Canadian Parsi, I have lived most of my life on the lands of the Coast Salish nations on the West Coast of Turtle Island, a.k.a. North America. I love being a Parsi and have been very involved in my community, including leading an oral herstory study of those who identify as women: zxx.med.ubc.ca

As an activist scholar, my life and work are mirror reflections. Feminism, anti racism and decolonizing ways of being are integrated into my everyday life and work. Equally, yoga, meditation and other spiritual practices are key to my wellbeing and I love teaching them to others. I’ve taught yoga in over 60 countries, and never cease to be in awe of how much inner peace it generates for our stressed world. Nameste.

Dr Lumas J. Helaire: I’m an African American cis-gender heterosexual male first-generation college graduate. Born in the southern US and raised in Louisiana and San Francisco. Raised catholic (completed communions and confirmation), but allowed to develop my own religious and spiritual beliefs. I was encouraged to think for myself. My interests and work have centered on creating, within traditional educational settings, spaces that develop critical thinking and interrogation of norms, particularly those that exclude or marginalize groups. I was Board president for a Detroit public charter school whose mission is to “nurture creative critical thinkers who contribute to the wellbeing of their communities.” I independently sponsor financial literacy and emotional wellbeing workshops for members of my community. I’m also an initiate of an African rites of passage community focused on self-awareness through engagement in community. In this community, we encourage young and old alike to engage in practices such as Fa and Family Constellation. While my cultural and personal narrative bend me toward collective and liberatory frames, I’ve learned a valuable tool in inclusivity is in listening and sharing decision-making with those the research project is entered on. Thus, we will invite healers of the traditions of focus to design the project in partnership with the authors.

Council of Healers

Our feminist, anti-racism, and decolonial study will center and celebrate wellbeing facilitators to highlight what their practice does, how it heals people, how it links people to planet, and how it encourages action on climate justice. The wellbeing facilitators will co-create the action component of this project — from the early stages. To this end, we have assembled a Council of Healers which will help us to guide our project from this preliminary stage. The Council consists of 5 people, representing each practice. Once the sixth practice has been selected, the Council will have one more member. Council meetings will be held regularly throughout the duration of the project. We are particularly excited about this Council as well as the global gathering because we are quite sure that the intentional bringing together of these practices has not been done in this fashion before.

Peer Support as Part of Green Collective Wellbeing Systems

These systems of green collective healing are not exclusively focused on the healer as the main source of healing. In the collective practice, other participants may help to heal each other. The practice is designed to be done in a group setting, enabling peer healing. It is well known that peer support catalyzes recovery and healing in measures such as psychosocial support, reduced isolation, and improved knowledge of self-care. ⁵⁴

Cultural Creatives -- A Key Component of This Project

This project will embed cultural creatives — artists who use film, photography, and storytelling as their medium. It will also encourage the healers and members of the research team to blend creative media into the work of this project. Artistic expressions and written documentation of these healing practices will enable access to larger groups. We hope to enable more awareness about these practices through film production, photography, and storytelling, as creative practices such as these catalyze learning.

Drawing from qualitative and arts-based methods, our project will thus emphasize creative forms of knowledge creation, expression, and communication. Central to our design is co-creating the knowledge process with the healers, similar to other studies incorporating arts-based methodologies, with cultural creatives on the team. ⁵⁵ The process has been described as unravelling, meshing and raveling, as depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Drawing of diagram “unraveling, meshing and ravelling as part of the knowledge co-creation” by M. Strand, N. Rivers, R. Baasch, and B. Snow ⁵⁵ ; drawing by Harleen Randhawa.

This multimethods study brings together PAR, qualitative interviews, and arts-based methods in the following steps:

Identification and Documentation of Healing and Wellbeing Traditions

Identification of Healing Traditions

We will identify 6 collective healing and wellbeing practices based on their potential to impact groups of people in various cultural contexts significantly, while considering the importance of a balanced global sample with more than 3 parts of the globe. We anticipate the total number of healing practices to be 6; 5 of them have already been identified and we are allowing a sixth practice to emerge through the research process.

We plan to include:

family constellation healing, a Zulu practice, is led by a trained facilitator who calls upon the participant’s ancestors to heal their dilemma and gain a deeper understanding about the causes of this dilemma, which may be linked to family or ancestral dynamics; other people take on roles in the participant’s life to simulate real life scenarios using dialogue and other tools of theater. ³⁰

fa, a Ghanaian practice, involves music and dance. ⁵⁶ Fa emphasizes spiritual guidance on different aspects of life (eg, health, family, career, and spiritual growth) through divination processes and rituals engaging in nature. ⁵⁷

yoga, a South Asian practice, designed to connect mind and body and people to all life, integrates breath, body, postures, deep relaxation and other techniques. Many of the poses are imitations of animals and plants, such as tree, cobra, lion and so forth. It has been popularized in many parts of the world, yet it is often stripped of its spiritual significance.

shinrinyoku, a Japanese nature immersion practice, which is often translated to forest bathing, usually in the trees; this practice can be active or passive depending on people’s health status, the forest is a place for convalescence for those who are ill and movement practices are done for those who are seeking to maintain or improve health. ⁵⁸

Danza Azteca, from Mexico, is a participatory dance form led by a trained facilitator that draws upon 4 elements: air, fire, water, and earth. Ancestors are called upon to promote wellbeing of those who are currently alive. ⁵⁹

The sixth practice will emerge from our research process as we engage with practitioners from around the world and learn more.

These BIPOC practices are rooted in philosophies of interconnectedness between all life forms.

On-Site Visits and Documentation

Utilizing in depth key informant interviews, onsite visits will involve immersive engagement with healers, recognizing the importance of cultural nuance and cosmological frameworks. Our interviews will be informed by arts-based research methods and recognize the importance of subjective experiences. ⁶⁰ We will interview 3 healers for each GreenCoWell tradition. Three interviews per healer will be captured on film and photography. We will also be filming and photographing the wellbeing practice in action when possible. In addition to interviews, we will integrate photovoice documentation techniques, to capture the essence of each healing practice. ⁶¹

Photovoice is aptly used as a PAR technique because of its versatility and accessibility, catalyzing active engagement in the research process. Healers will be trained by our research team in using photovoice to document their journeys with their GreenCoWell tradition. Each healer will take photos related to their experience with GreenCoWell and provide auditory and written interpretation of their images — storytelling — to share with other participants and the research team.^62,63 Participants will use their own smartphones to capture images of their lives and their wellbeing in Shinrinyoku and the other practices. The research team will loan participants smartphones if they do not own one. We will apply photovoice methodology in a flexible fashion, meaning that if healers were to prefer to draw or use another medium other than photography, we are open to their forms of expression.

Storytelling and Creative Expression

Creation of Accessible Materials

Arts-based methods, including filmmaking, narrative inquiry, ⁶⁴ and storytelling, ⁶⁵ will be incorporated to craft engaging and accessible materials. The stories and narratives will largely be linked to the still and moving images. We anticipate that this will convey information and evoke emotional connections, fostering a deeper understanding of the healing traditions. Creating materials using artistic media aims to attract a broad audience. These materials will be made available online through Health Together (formerly Maternal and Infant Health Canada), the global public health organization leading this work.

Scholarly Documentation

We plan to publish at least one scholarly article. We will present at scholarly conferences as well.

Public Dissemination

Like doctoral students who dance their PhDs, ⁶⁶ the creative materials–a film, poem, stories–will be communicated through live performances, exhibitions, and digital platforms to reach diverse audiences and encourage a multisensory experience. Health Together has social media and knowledge translation teams to take this work to broader audiences.

Global Gathering of Wellbeing Facilitators

Collaborative Global Gathering of Wellbeing Facilitators

We will bring 3 wellbeing facilitators from each tradition together through this project. We anticipate that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts, meaning that the ideas generated by them in dialogue will be more powerful than just a collection of their individual perspectives in isolation of the others. We anticipate that the gathering will allow each wellbeing facilitator to engage participants in their practice in whatever way they deem appropriate. Dialogical methods ⁶⁷ will be employed at the gathering, allowing a wellbeing facilitator to engage in reciprocal conversations. Graphic facilitation will be utilized to visually represent collective insights and foster shared understanding. ⁶⁸ The gathering will include focus groups of wellbeing facilitator together which will be filmed and photographed.

Grounded in arts-based PAR, ⁶⁹ the global gathering will also incorporate expressive arts activities, collaborative performances, and participatory theater techniques. These methods facilitate collective meaning-making and dialogue. ⁶⁵

Manifesto and Products

The manifesto and accompanying products will be crafted through a collaborative, arts-based process, incorporating techniques from participatory visual research. ⁷⁰ The manifesto will be a combination of ideas from all the wellbeing facilitators and how they will envision a more globally just, green, and healthier world. We will aim for the final products to resonate with the diverse voices and experiences of the wellbeing facilitators. These final products and outputs will include academic manuscripts, conference presentations, a series of videos or a longer length video, poems, and stories.

The Recommendations or Plans Crafted From the Gathering of Wellbeing Facilitators Will be Used to Design the Next Stage of Study

This study is set up to acknowledge the wellbeing facilitators as the experts and the research question is aimed at understanding and documenting what the wellbeing facilitators determine as possible, necessary, and actionable.

Implementation Strategies — Based on Integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT) and Participatory Action Research (PAR)

Development of Integration Strategies

The development of integration strategies will be guided by the manifesto and vision of those at the global gathering. We anticipate that integration strategies will be informed by principles of arts-informed inquiry. ⁷¹ This involves collaboratively creating visual representations, such as mind maps or symbolic artwork, to explore potential intersections between traditional healing practices, environmental justice, and healthcare.

Engagement of Rights Holders

We anticipate that the manifesto will sketch a picture of what needs to happen to improve human and environmental health, and who will champion this work. We will thus be identifying key rights holders for the implementation phase of this project. Dialogical photo voice technique ⁶² may be used to engage rights holders and encourage them to share their perspectives through visual narratives. This approach acknowledges the value of visual representation in articulating diverse viewpoints. ⁷²

Through these multiple methods, this project seeks to document healing traditions and explore wellbeing facilitators interests and proposals for spawning widespread interest in engagement with these practices. Arts-based methods offer a creative opportunity to proliferate the potential for individual, collective, and planetary wellbeing to be carried out simultaneously. Through the promotion of these healing practices, we aim to foster embodied understandings of the deep interconnection of all life forms, thus catalyzing environmental justice activism.

This study has received ethics approval from the University of British Columbia’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board.

Planned Data Sources

The data sources for this project will include ideas from wellbeing facilitators in different parts of the world. We will interview them in conjunction with filmmakers and storytellers. We will analyze the data and publish it. Furthermore, we plan to make a film about the wellbeing facilitators and their practices and create stories and poems that portray the practices and their environmental potential.

Discussion

Humans are facing an existential crisis. The pandemic provided a potential departure from business as usual and possibilities for complete transformation of socioeconomic relations. Unfortunately, by 2024 most socioeconomic processes had returned to exploitive pre-pandemic norms. Given the desire for human survival, we are behooved to consider various creative options for planetary health. We posit that such solutions already exist but they have been unable to fulfill their full potential as a result of dominant forces such as colonialism and misogyny. By uncovering and highlighting global GreenCoWell through feminist, antiracism and decolonial perspectives, we hope to contribute, in a humble fashion, to species survival and justice.

GreenCoWell are not well studied given that the conventional healing paradigm is typically one wellbeing facilitator to one patient. In this proposal, we will be looking at practices which are upstream, and lodged in health promotion and wellbeing paradigms that connect mind, body, and spirit to all lifeforms. We posit that these wellbeing practices provide experiences that help people to have a deep embodied understanding of interconnection of all life. Practices such as shinrinyoku explicitly bring people in contact with trees to enhance mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. In touching trees and immersing oneself in the Asian medical paradigm based on ki (life force), one learns the tremendous bond that exists between humans and trees. In feeling an elevated sense of wellbeing because of this bond, people tend to be called to preserve and protect the environment. ⁷³

Engaging wellbeing facilitators from 6 different GreenCoWell traditions in a collective dialogue, we will explore how Global Indigenous Green forms of Collective Wellbeing may improve human and planetary wellbeing. The dialogue for the method of this project centers the wellbeing facilitators of each of these traditions and asks them to share their perspective on the desired needs and methods for promoting widespread engagement of GreenCoWell.

In collaborating with Indigenous wellbeing facilitators and analyzing collective wellbeing practices from around the globe, we aim to address the crises of human illness and climate injustice. Through a social justice lens, our project seeks to understand the worldview of unity and oneness as it is embodied within 6 wellbeing traditions. We plan to incorporate arts-based methods as an integral way of discussing and portraying these healing traditions.

The principal investigator for this project (Shroff) was recently in Peru, scoping preliminary ideas for our project. While there, she discovered that the Peruvian painter and sculptor Jade Rivera’s work beautifully captures notions of unity and oneness between humans and nature which is resonant with GreenCoWell practices (please see Figure 3):

Figure 3.

Paintings by Peru’s Jade Rivera. ⁷⁴

We anticipate the integration of art such as this will be key to our project. It adds beauty and meaning to the printed word.

Writing down spiritual ideas runs the risk of reducing the sacredness of the subject matter. While some of the meaning may be lost in the flat medium of the printed word, the green collective healing traditions of this project are based on the notion that we can all be well together.

Conclusions

Narratives about GreenCoWell are relatively untold, particularly from a feminist, anti-racism, and decolonial perspective. The use of arts-based methodologies is also somewhat unusual in the field of global public health, yet they bear tremendous potential for proliferation of ideas within and beyond academia.

This project represents a novel approach to exploring and scaling up ancient BIPOC healing traditions, fostering a deeper connection between humans and the environment, and ultimately contributing to the mental-physical-spiritual health and wellbeing of both people and the planet.