Between Jan and May 2024, I was an expeditioner as part of the latest cohort of the Possible Futures crews Intro to Decolonial Sustainability course, a 5-month unlearning and re-learning experience that guides a mix of Western corporate professional and/or consultants serving those industries, and Global South participants, with a personal journey into decolonisation.
What is decolonisation?
One lens to answer this question, and it is only one, is from this article by The Conversation:
“True decolonisation seeks to challenge and change White superiority, nationalistic history and “truth”.
The Rights of Indigenous people was adopted by the United Nations in 2007. It says:
Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
It lists several important rights in the process of decolonisation, including:
the right to autonomy and self-government, including financing for these autonomous functions
freedom from forced removal of children
protection of archaeological and historical sites, and repatriation of ceremonial objects and human remains
the right to provide education in their own language
state-owned media should reflect Indigenous cultural diversity
legal recognition of traditional lands, territories and resources.”
I have, personally, been guided into this space for the past 3.5 years by a systems guide based in The Philippines, and indeed I was a guest coach on the first iteration of this same course. However, I felt that I had too much work to do myself to justify me being in a space-holding capacity for others, and that was one of the most humble, important decisions of my life to date, which you will hear as my learning unfolds in this podcast.
Part of my accountability to myself, and to my own ongoing journey of unlearning and reimagining, was to continue to develop Radicality, a freshly imagined ecosystems of transformative service providers, to share this presentation with the CEO of my main employer (which I will be doing during August before we meet in September), and to ensure that my learning journey was made available on an open-source, generative, basis in case anyone had any interest to #learnoutloud with their own a-ha’s, challenges, or reflections linked to these learnings.
It is important to note that the intentional, uncomfortable, design of the course, was supported by a co-learning approach i.e each expeditioner was allocated a crew of people who they would meet with regularly to share experience, process feelings, co-create possibilities etc So much of what I share in my presentation and in this podcast is co-created.
Sure, I have a lot of my own experience, and I contributed a lot too, but it is really this letting go of hyper-individualism and lone-ranger-ness that I found a mix of challenging, and freeing.
It was truly unlike any other (more linear) education or training that I have experienced. Indeed the non-linearity of this course is what made it so special, challenging, and freeing, all whilst getting lost on regularly occasions.
I wanted to upload this to the podcast platform rather than leave it housed on YouTube for improved accessibility, and to try and get the message out about the amazing work of Possible Futures and their work.
If you are able to support their incredibly important work, you can donate at this link HERE.
If you do dive into this podcast, I would love to hear what you take away, what piqued your interest, what causes you frustration, or what questions you take curiously into your own context.
With constructive challenge, love, and catalytic energy.
Shall we connect?
My name is Garry Turner and I guide the expansion of possibilities at the intersections of International Sales, People & Culture, Equity & Inclusion and Sustainability:
Email me at garry.turner@radicality.co.uk
Visit Radicality at https://www.radicality.co.uk/
Linktree — https://linktr.ee/GarryTurner
Subscribe to my substack at
International speaker on topics around decentralised organisational design, vulnerability and change is an inside job. See flyer HERE.
Support senior leaders and mission driven solopreneurs as a Thinking Partner. See flyer HERE.
Facilitator of people-centered workshops and organisational design. See flyer HERE.
Guide of 1–1 personal, transformational Exploration Spaces. See flyer HERE.
'Moving from walking dead to more alive' - My Intro to Decolonial Sustainability final presentation