Name: A liberating vision of identity that transcends labels
Uploaded: 2023-06-29T14:59:57Z
Duration: 16 min 27 s
Description: How can we move past society's inclination to box people in with binary thinking and labels? Social work professor Jioji Ravulo believes we need to embrace multiplicity, exploring how Indigenous perspectives can help create more welcoming, collective communities for everyone.

Jioji Ravulo: A liberating vision of identity that transcends labels

A liberating vision of identity that transcends labels

How can we move past society's inclination to box people in with binary thinking and labels? Social work professor Jioji Ravulo believes we need to embrace multiplicity, exploring how Indigenous perspectives can help create more welcoming, collective communities for everyone.

Society often pressures people to choose between rigid categories like straight or gay, Indigenous or Western, individual or collective. Growing up biracial and bisexual in public housing, the speaker struggled to find belonging within these narrow definitions. Pacific cultures once embraced fluid identities and valued the collective before colonization imposed shame and binaries. Embracing Indigenous perspectives can help everyone move beyond restrictive labels to create truly inclusive communities.