Greetings

My story begins with the arrival of my father from Jamaica to the UK in 1957, shortly followed by my soul mother, my father's wife. I was born in 1969 and lived in Birmingham, UK until I was 9 years of age when my biological mother moved us to a small town called Tamworth, UK. I can only say that this was the first time when I became 'racially' aware as my colour became an issue for others around me, and in the 1970s people didn't have a problem with being overtly racist. Tamworth was my home for most of my youth and teenage years before I reunited and rekindled my bond with the rest of Father's family back in Birmingham. 

 

By 1993, I became a father for the first time. This happened in the same month as the murder of Steven Lawrence. I was deeply shocked and experienced what we now call vicarious trauma but instead of demoralising me it served to mobilise me. Fast Forward to 2004 and I was graduating with Masters degree in Race and Ethnic studies and an undergraduate degree in West African studies. I had already been working as a mentor for black boys, at risk of school exclusion, and with those already excluded. For the best part of a decade I was working in and across the educational sector intersecting with racial justice, and equality and diversity. However, this work took a toll.

 

2012, I had moved to Cumbria, UK, where unknowingly I began a healing journey that is still alive for me today. I deepened in my spiritual practices and began to become more embodied in my general life. I had spent a long time favouring intellect and had neglected the body but this was changing, significantly. Now deeply immersed in embodiment and trauma education from a somatic perspective, I completed a number of trainings and mentorships. All that I was learning I was applying to my own healing, once I had been able to acknowledge I needed it.

 

It's 2020 and George Floyd's murder is global news. I was suddenly called back into the work of racial justice, under the banner of anti-racism. This time, however, I had a new perspective, one which came from the recognition of there being a need for healing and the maintenance of wellness to underpin any social justice movement. Indeed, the work of anti-racism is taxing, on many levels, and the body-heart-mind is the cite in which the work must be done without privileging any one part more than the other. I was now embodying the knowledge and the skills to do the work. It was time to share with others.   

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Working with the newly formed Anti-Racist Cumbria, https://antiracistcumbria.org/ I began to develop trainings and courses to share my experience of healing from racial trauma on a body-heart-mind level. Somatic-Embodiment was integral to the processes and, I believe, is the most effective way to heal from, and also teach about the impact of racial trauma. So here we are, Black-Body Heart-Mind Consultancy. 

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My Journey 

 

My journey, like many, is indirect but was always on track to bring me to where I am now. It began the moment I was conceived and from there is unfolded in wondrous and miraculous ways, but to be pragmatic I will simply go back to the moment that I became a dedicated practitioner of Yoga, Sema (The Kemetic word for union), back in 2000. Through ongoing practice and sitting with teachers and mentors I began to ask the big questions in life. Why am I here? Why is the world the way it is? What is my contribution going to be? Sema revealed the answers and with diligent practice and focus I continue to become more aware, on the daily.

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I have come to see and understand our role in life as one of bringing presence to all that we experience and practice in life. What does that mean? It simply means that whatever we do, we should do it with the fullness of who we are, all of our experiences and understandings, misunderstandings and moments of uncertainty are what is sacred about our lives. My journey has, more recently, been characterised as one of healing due to the pervasive, systemic and persistent practice of white bodied cultural supremacy, but this alone does not define me. However, the need to tend to the harm caused to me through a system of racialised power over people, lead me to great wisdom-teachers and systems, which include Classical Indian Tantra,  Ancient Semai Tawi, Ritualism and Ancestral Reverence and Remembrance along with more body centred orientations to life and living. My journey still unfolds and infolds according to the great wheel which keeps on turning. 

 

May my own and your journey reveal enough for you to be happy, at peace, and free from suffering.  Ashe