WORKSHOPS
Tired Together: Listening to and Honouring our Fatigue
In this workshop, we aim to create a collective space where participants can explore and respond to feelings of fatigue. By fatigue we mean the sense of being unexcited, tired, or bogged down in our work and daily lives. Rather than seeing fatigue as an individual or internalised issue, we will collectively investigate how it is rooted in the systemic pressures around us.
Through activities that engage listening to our bodies and exploring what lightness can feel like, we hope to develop practices to honour and respond to fatigue in ways that support personal and collective well-being.
Navigating ableism in therapy conversations
In this workshop we hope to deconstruct ableism that sneaks into everyday lives, notice its tricks and games, make it visible, challenge it.
We will delve into experiences of people with disabilities and the effects of ableism on their lives. We will work together on discovering maps to explore ways of navigating ableism and nurturing preferred identities in therapy conversations with people with disabilities.
What is Narrative Supervision?
During a supervision session that is shaped by the narrative metaphor we always hope to contribute to a reinvigoration of professional identity.In this mini workshop we will explore supervision that is informed by the practices and ethics of narrative therapy as described by Michael White. We will look at the key ideas of narrative supervision and examine what is important to you in the work you do.
Centering Liberatory Possibilities in Intimate Relationships
When working with couples and people in intimate relationships, it’s natural for pressing issues to take center stage, as they often feel urgent and require resolution. However, it’s equally important to recognize and honor the connection that partners value within their complex shared narrative. This connection can serve as a foundation for leaning into the challenging work of nurturing the relationship. In this session, we will explore the ways to center liberatory possibilities in intimate relationships, even as we navigate the difficult, complex, and at times, oppressive dynamics that may arise.
Creating Children's Picture Books: Joy and Thoughtfulness in equal measure.
Honoring the pace of local practices of storytelling to arrive at ‘We are our own experts’ while navigating the dictates of the prevailing world.
The invitation to this workshop is to share experiences of creating children’s picture books with considered arrival at seeing beyond what is obvious, with nothing deemed ordinary, no emotion considered invalid, redefining what comprises legitimate art, your reacquaintance to what actually holds most resonance to you. The learning is informed by stories and storytellers of many indigenous Nepali languages and experiences.
Wonderfulness of play in childrens lives
Conventional ideas around play, specifically children’s play, is that it is all fun, freedom and joy with no real purpose other than to give children some respite from the ‘real work’ of life. This is however far from what PLAY actually means for a young child’s development and growth. Play in fact is the ‘essence’ of childhood; it is one of the easiest and safest ways to build strong foundations for brain development in the early years. Play is what helps children build skills that help them learn, problem solve and build relationships.
In this workshop, we will look at what Play is, its importance for young children and their development and how to use Play in our work with children and/or caregivers to help support the early development for any child. We will explore how children are always responding and witness their agency through the wisdom of their bodies and minds while they are at Play.
Paper as a quiet companion in navigating our multiple selves
We frequently find ourselves wrestling with our self-image, navigating the many facets of our identity. This exploration can be daunting. Yet, paper serves as a quiet, accepting ally and an impartial witness to the stories we weave about ourselves. Drawing and writing can offer us a space where we can acknowledge the multitudes of selves within us. This workshop hopes to offer ways to explore and reinterpret our narratives in meaningful and preferred ways and allow us to assert ourselves against the dominant stories imposed upon us through journaling. Participants don’t need to have any drawing expertise or writing proficiency to join this workshop; we will simply engage with what flows naturally from within
Schools as sites of hope: Humanising education through Narrative Practices
What are some memories we have of our school? Can schools be designed as spaces of joy, hope, justice and possibilities? How may Narrative Practices shape such a design?
In this workshop, we will explore practices of courage, safety and community using examples from Apni Shala's work with students, teachers and families. Participants will co-create possible practices to build nurturing spaces for young people in their circles of influence.
Queer Qoupling and Qinship
This is a magical story of a ‘girl’ who turned into a ‘boy’ and his younger brother whose ‘sister’ became his ‘brother’. While gender dissolved, their parents grappled with the fluidity of gender in their children as they themselves struggled in their own exploration around their selves and their own identities. As the rigid lines of marriage blurred, boundaries were drawn and redrawn; they struggled trying to make sense of their lives and their relationships inhabiting an in-between space between islands of discoveries and the mainland of dreary habit and norms. It is a fantastic story of cats and dogs, rainbows and radios, plants and prop roots of ancient banyan trees, tattoos and detectives with queer platonic partners, school of witches and sorcerers, a potpourri of magic and madness. It is a journey from marriage to a partnership, from being a ‘couple’ to a ‘qouple’, from family to queer qinship, from the problem stories of caste, class and heteropatriarchal norms to rich, thick stories of resistance and resilience and finally from being parents and children to friends.
Nurturing of safe inclusive community spaces..
What is a community?
Why are connections made?
What makes these accepting of diversity?
When could they be considered to be safe and respectful?
How could persons be allowed to be their natural selves?
Kabir, Anand and Parul Kumtha have pondered on these questions for long. The pandemic offered an opportunity to explore the many aspects around these questions in unconventional ways as they, along with the entire world, explored avenues to stay connected, creative and curious. Even in the senseless loss of lives, livelihoods, homes and health that engulfed us all, there was seen the palpable need to make human connect. A connect of humanity beyond beliefs and ideologies and politics. From this arose the idea of Aagḻévegḻé आगळेवेगळे (Marathi, meaning uniquely different). A safe, inclusive, free space to be oneself. Unapologetically, inexplicably, inevitably oneself.
Aagḻévegḻé आगळेवेगळे is a space for
When one feels creative...
When a poem or a story, a song or a dance, a play or a painting just brims over from within and one wants to share its splendor....
When one is bitten by the bug of curiosity....
When one wants to hone one's problem solving acumen....
When one wants to explore new worlds and cultures...and share the wonder....
When one wants to be by oneself and revel in the richness of one's own company... or
When one wants to meet new people and make new connections....
When one wants to share from one's abundance of material things, or knowledge and experience... and
When one wants to just be..
And then it started happening. Slowly and steadily, over the last 2 years, an Aagḻévegḻé community started to form. We, the hosts, observers and decentered influencers, recount the many beautiful sparkling moments that we have been lucky to witness unfolding, as the community takes ownership of the space and shapes and reshapes it every day. Through the mini-workshop, we hope to share some of these processes, small actions and values and to co-explore with the participants, possibilities of creating safe and inclusive community spaces celebrating diversity, in varying contexts.
Stitching stories to nurture agency
The author Anaïs Beaulieu in her book ‘A stitch out of time’ writes the following about stitching, which resonates with Anita and Aditi. “Embroidering is meditative, Each stitch with the needle conjures a thought… and then another… and another. The act of stitchery — a gestural to and fro — can create an experience that leads to other places… and back again.Then again, embroidering is not so different from taking a stroll. It is an occasion to take our time and observe. Embroidery allows me to resist the pace that is imposed on me, and i am able to find my own rhythm.”
Stitching in different forms has been a cultural practice that has been passed on from generation to generation. Stitching our stories on a cloth is a way to experience personal stories in new ways of connectedness. It provides a way to narrate our stories without focusing on words. It firmly holds on to the belief that people are always responding. Stitching stories is a way to nurture these responses, a way to nurture agency. Together we will explore in this mini workshop, the confluence of narrative ideas and practices and stitching stories to nurture agency.
Screening of Morisika
“Morisika (Mirage): The Story of the Boatman" traces the personal histories of 8 lives that are intertwined with the river during the 19th, 20th and 21st century set against the backdrop of politicised and natural events. The “boatman” is a metaphor for connecting threads much as the boatmen themselves in Assam connect people and livelihoods. This film positions itself as an intersection between society-art- nature through the medium of creative non-fiction. Stories from memory; of seasonal changes, biodiversity, mythologies, folk music are all a testimony to the common man’s relationship with land and water. Their resilience in the face of challenges due to natural calamities fuelled by climate change and their struggle to understand their own sense of identity and history in a landscape that is fast vanishing, is the thread that brings it all together. This film is an attempt to leave behind a document for them, made by them.
Directed by: Vandana Menon & Debashish Nandi
Produced by: Vandana Menon
Associate Director: Arghadeep Barua
Edited by Debashish Nandi & Vandana Menon
Panelists: Bidisha Mahanta, Indira Tayeng, Raghav Maru, Gabriella Jauregui
Moderator: Divya Kandukuri
Of Histories and Stories: Tales from feminist history-making
Panel discussion: Zubaan is proud to present a power-packed panel on all things Archiving Stories in collaboration with Narrative Practices India. Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion that explores the critical role of archiving and various mediums of documentation in social justice movements.
This panel will bring together feminists, filmmakers, scholars who have been working on preserving histories of the communities that have been marginalised. The panel will discuss the importance of community-led archiving initiatives, documentation through films, feminist storytelling that challenge dominant narratives and disrupt the systems of oppression.
Join us for an enriching conversation that highlights the power of archiving as a tool for advocacy, organising and for building movements.
Poster Women Exhibition
In 2006, Zubaan undertook a project titled "Poster Women," a visual mapping of the women’s movement in India through the posters the movement had produced. The aim was to explore the history of the movement through its visual imagery, showcasing the various campaigns and forms they have taken over time. Out of the 1500 posters we collected, an exhibition of over 200 posters was curated, which travelled to various locations within India and abroad.
The exhibition at NPI brings together a collection of posters that are themed around how poster making itself is a protest against various systems of oppression and conformity. For communities that have been marginalized, poster making had been a medium through which conversations around justice, rights, access and advocacy were built, as well as used to mobilise, and organise the community. The posters we will be bringing together for this exhibition will focus on mental health through the idea of community participation in poster making, an activity rooted in the ability to tell your own stories through a visual medium. The exhibition aims to build conversations on different aspects of documentation — ecology, violence against women, visible and invisible labour, etc. — from marginalized communities and how it connects with building a historical narrative when other forms of documentation have often been from the gaze of privileged communities.
Disordering the DSM
Disordering the DSM is a mini creative writing workshop. We will take the DSM Manual, a manual that can be useful to name what and how we feel and experience but that has also been used to stigmatize and over-medicalize. We will go over its history and a few examples of visual poetry. With all that information and our personal experiences in hand, we will take it apart, literally, and create a liberating, personal, collective series of visual poems to redefine it and make it ours.
Film-making: a way to tell our stories
We live in an age where time flies. The speed at which we live our lives seeps into the way we see, think, act, listen to and tell stories. They disappear in a blink of an eye, new ones take shape. Film making is about resisting the influence of structure or power and allowing ourselves to truly slow down, which isn’t easy and often feels challenging. It enables all of us to get to know each other's stories through the act of sharing with respect and empathy.
Through the course of this workshop, we will explore ways to hone the ability and power to tell one’s own story. With patience, let’s take the time to observe deeply. Let’s allow moments to breathe, capturing subtleties and not rushing people or scenes. We learn to become part of the ecosystem which we have set out to film in the first place. Relationships are formed; the kind that teaches us the power of everyday stories. After all, we are tellers of our own stories. So then, let’s learn to tell a story created by all of us, for all of us
Building dreams through Libraries
In this workshop, the librarians from Buguri Libraries will take you through a process of building your own library for children. By inviting you to re-imagine the idea of libraries as being a quiet space, the facilitators will encourage you to think of libraries as magical spaces where children can laugh, have fun and build dreams.
How can libraries be a space for children to re-author their stories? What qualities and practices do we need to develop in libraries for children to feel safe and access joy? How does one curate books for children? How do activities like story-telling, read aloud, theater and music help children to navigate complexities of everyday life? How can children and communities be co-authors in creating this space? We will explore these questions through fun-filled activities.
Gentle invitations to understanding and talking about Autism..
In our therapeutic conversations with adults, we have witnessed how people have experienced distress over feeling broken and have struggled to fit in to what is considered “normal”. These and more could be gentle invitations to explore possibilities of neurodivergent identities. In this workshop, we will be exploring understandings of Autism in therapeutic conversations. Together we will deconstruct discourses around Autism, invite people to think about Autism in therapy spaces and support therapists to have conversations that would be nurturing of Autistics.
Facilitated by Deanne Dale, Donna McGushin, Hamida Parkar
A Place to Breathe, at Home and Away: The Power and Promise of Retreats
This workshop intends to share group reflections on participation and facilitation of retreats for social and community workers at home in Australia in 2022, away in Bali, Indonesia in 2023 and 2024 and now in Pondicherry India in 2025. The program is based on structured reflective storytelling in the narrative therapy traditions of outsider witnessing. The group co-researches the experience of being together ‘away’ in an unfamiliar cultural context and the challenges and opportunities this presents for personal and collective migration of identity. We hope people will take away an understanding of how flexibility and response-ability in facilitation creates a safe space to ‘breathe’, find solidarity, build community and bring hope for social justice ‘doing’
How can we cultivate sensorial resistance to a society that compels us to dissociate?
For many, dissociation is a survival mechanism in the face of burnout and exhaustion. These feelings can arise not only from battling oppressive oppositions but also from navigating conflicts with those we love, care for, and even within ourselves.
Where can care find its place in a struggle that feels endless? While this question may lead to more questions than answers, sensorial experiences—those that ground us in the present moment— can be a form of resistance.
This gathering invites participants to intentionally slow down, engage with sensory experiences through color, textural materials, and grounding rituals. Together, we explore these practices as tools to rebuild energy and embrace our capacity to sustain ourselves and one another.