#76 Maanarak of Grey on artivism and playfulness in international development
“We actually do use art in development work, especially if you’re talking about working in places where people don’t necessarily speak the language that you speak or they don’t have a certain level of education to understand your written language in a certain way. We have to draw for them, we have to make things visual, so that already brings an element of art into development work.”
In a culture that inhibits adult creative integration, how can grounding community development work in play, creativity, vulnerability and inner child healing help materialise knowledges into transformative development practice?
This month, we invite to the space Maanarak of Grey, the artistic alias of Radinka Ustasia, a multidisciplinary artist from the Caribbean island of Bonaire. From 2010-2023 Maanarak has lived, studied, and worked in the Netherlands, with the highest qualification she obtained there being a Bachelors of Science in International Development Management, majoring in Rural Development and Innovation, at Van Hall Larenstein in Velp. During her study program, she minored in Art and Creativity at work and this is where she started an exploration of combining her competing passions.
In this episode, we discuss the place that artivism holds in sustainable development and the ways in which art and science can be interwoven to make the development sector more accessible, fluid and equitable through the powerful tool of play. By getting in touch with our inner child and the playful modes of creation we once had access to as children, Maanarak guides us in exploring the deeply healing forces of art that invite opportunities to be vulnerable and in touch with ourselves, our communities and our ecosystems to bring about long-lasting systemic change.
What will be covered:
Interweaving art with development work to contribute to wider society that also tends to her passions and artistic needs
Decolonising development through visualisations and mapping to improve accessibility
Healing the inner child through tapping into memories of play, creativity and open-mindedness as children
Reigniting play through facilitation processes, with detailed examples
The need for development work to invite opportunities to be vulnerable and transparent
Informing development and environmental work by lived experiences of the people who are most intimately tied to the land
Shifting away from constant knowledge-production to meaningful practice and awareness-building
Importance of synergy and balancing inner and outer worlds in social work
Insight into Maanarak’s books on climate anxiety and relationship healing
Resources:
Connect with Maanarak on Instagram (@maanarak.art)
Visit Maanarak’s website
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Mind Full of Everything is a podcast calling for the radical healing of the self and community to outgrow the broken dominant culture of radical individualism and disconnection from our place as interdependent beings, so that we can collectively re-envision a safer, healthier and equitable world. Each episode takes a healing-centric approach to explore the embodied ways in which we can collectively restore and transform our journeys as stewards of community and earth through conversations with writers, researchers, coaches and educators, as well as reflection episodes with the host Agrita Dandriyal on her journey navigating the world as a deeply conscious, culturally-rooted and relational being. Learn more here.
