Intergenerational Dialogue as a Decolonial Praxis of Healing

This paper explores intergenerational dialogue as a decolonial praxis of healing in communities marked by colonial trauma and systemic injustice. Framed by the decolonial thought of Fanon (1967), Mignolo (2009), and Walsh (2018), it argues that intergenerational encounters grounded in oral storytelling, testimony, and memory practices are not only pedagogical but reparative. Dialogue between elders and youth enables the reclamation of silenced histories and suppressed ways of knowing, constituting what Maldonado-Torres (2007) terms an ‘ethics of decolonial being.’ Drawing on Indigenous and Afro-diasporic communities engaged in cultural revitalisation and truth-telling practices, the paper examines how transgenerational trauma can be addressed through relational healing frameworks. Practices such as land-based storytelling, communal remembrance rituals, and ancestral pedagogy offer counter-hegemonic alternatives to Eurocentric models of wellbeing and education (Smith 2021; Archibald 2008). The paper will also consider the emotional labour and risks of re-traumatisation inherent in dialogues, calling for ethical, situated, and community-led facilitation.

Ultimately, the paper positions intergenerational dialogue as a site of epistemic justice and transformative potential. It challenges dominant framings of dialogue as neutral exchange, instead framing it as an insurgent, healing act that connects memory, resistance, and futurity.

Reece Sohdi

Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Sunderland

Reece Sohdi is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Sunderland. Reece started his career with a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts and a PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education and Training at the University of Sunderland, then completed a Master’s in Education at Durham University. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and, as an early career researcher, focuses on decolonising the curriculum within higher education, with a broader view towards inclusive education and pedagogies in the wider education sector. Reece is eager to contribute to transformative discussions and practices that promote equity and globalised inclusion across all educational sectors and spaces. He has authored work in peer-reviewed journals and presented at conferences on the topics of race, ethnicity and inclusion, assessment and decolonising the curriculum.