Program Participant, May 2022

My Story

My name is ᜈᜏ ᜐᜒᜊᜒᜃᜓ / Nawa Sybico (they/them/siya). I am a first generation Bisaya immigrant settler. My family and I settled on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples. I now reside on the unceded territories of the Muwinina and Palawa peoples. As I did not come here invited by the traditional caretakers of this land, I strive to exist and practice my craft in utmost solidarity with local liberatory movements and align my own decolonial praxis with theirs. I therefore pay my respects to the true custodians of these lands, their ancestors, Elders, and families, through all time. I acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded.

As a disabled, queer, migrant of colour (with previous class privelege), I have seen firsthand how devastating the impacts of existing in an ongoing colonial, white supremacist society can be for marginalised communities. My practice seeks to bridge the gap of accessibility for services not subsidised by the government.

​

Healing to me is having an integrated self. That can look like having an experience of health from where we are, it can also look like being connected to our social ecosystem in a way that increases our vitality, or maybe we'd like to feel prepared to meet the inevitable cycles of life: birth, illness, loss, death.

​

My hope is for a trans-generational, systemic, embodied transformation that connects our social justice movements to our joy.