Embodied Abolition: A care-centered approach to changing systems

This paper is a reflection on my master’s research project event Embodied Abolition, which was held virtually on April 9th, 2022, in Toronto. The research project was a full day event which brought together Canada-based artists, activists and healers working within abolition frameworks, as well as individuals with lived experience of incarceration and/or the criminal justice system. My research was guided and summarized by the following question: how do we build care-centered justice systems through a process of embodied abolition? Through community based participatory research, the event, and this paper, was informed by theories of transformative justice, community accountability, radical imagination (Kelley, 2003), pleasure activism (Brown, 2019), ethical relationality (Donaldson, 2016) and the practice of somatics and Somatic Abolition (Menakem, 2020). In addition, it engaged with a rich genealogy and epistemology of abolition and community centered care-making led by queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and People of colour across North America. What the Embodied Abolition event offered was a uniquely Canadian lens to abolition organizing by highlighting the works of panelists working within Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. The panelists offered perspectives on abolition which intersected with land back movements, decolonization, disability justice, Indigenous teachings, and trans and Black experience of the Canadian justice system. The event findings highlighted a few key themes as crucial in the praxis of abolition and building of a care-based justice system. These themes were: self-determined healing, radical and loving reciprocity and relations which invite all into the conversation, and centering of voices of those with lived experience of the criminal justice system. This paper further explores these themes and connects them to the broader body of work and experiences within abolition.