Healing Power of Postcolonial Indigenous Women: Lessons from Aeta Women Healers in the Philippines and Implications

The University of the Philippines Center for Women’s and Gender Studies (UPCWGS), in partnership with the UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (CIDS) Decolonial Studies Program, invites everyone to the webinar, Healing Power of Postcolonial Indigenous Women: Lessons from Aeta Women Healers in the Philippines and Implications, by Dr. Rose Ann Torres. The third session of the lecture series, “Site of Convergence: Weaving Tapestries of Knowledge,” the event will be held on 7 April 2021 (Wednesday), 9:00-10:30 AM (Manila Time) via Zoom.

Register here: https://tinyurl.com/UPCWGSHEALINGPOWER.

Dr. Torres will talk about her research study, which focuses a reconsidered gaze and empirical lens on the healing practices of Aeta women healers as well as the lessons, insights, and perspectives which may have been previously missed. The research attempts not to be “neutral” but instead to be an exercise in participatory action research, and, as such, hopefully brings a new space of decolonization by documenting Aeta women healers’ contributions in the political and academic arena. It is an original contribution to postcolonial, anti-colonial, and indigenous feminist theories, particularly through its demonstration of the utility of these theories in understanding the health of indigenous peoples and global health.

Dr. Torres is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Science at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, Canada. Dr. Torres is the principal investigator of two research projects entitled “Caring for Others and Uncaring of the State: The Impact of COVID-19 on the Mental Health of Filipino Health Care Workers in Canada” and “The Role of Indigenous Healers in Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic.”