TECHNIQUES

Holding Our Identities

In any space we inhabit we are never just holding one identity. We are a confluence of the gender, class, race, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and other identities that shape us. Through this exercise we begin to see how our individual identities and the meeting our collective diverse identities affect the way we show up in spaces. Our hope is that through this activity we can become aware of how we embody intersectionality and become compassionate towards the need for inclusion.

Written by

Quime Williams

Edited by

Developed by

One day we were invited to facilitate a co-design workshop on a women’s political framework with female parliamentarians from across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and North Africa and the Middle East. In addition to helping them surface their ideas and visions, we were asked to come up with an exercise that could help make the concept of intersectionality land in a more felt way.

We took to the challenge with curiosity. In thinking back to an embodied movement exercise we did during our pandemic virtual sessions we saw the possibility to adapt to create a guided walking meditation. In this very simple guided walk, participants would have the possibility to individually yet simultaneously reflect on what intersectionality looks like and means in practice.

Since then, we have integrated this exercise in our participatory action research workshops as part of developing shared skills and language before diving into the research topic. We notice that doing this exercise helps people develop more curiosity for other people’s experience and widens their ability to hold nuance and complexity. This makes a lot of difference later on in the research or learning process when they are invited to unpack the topic of their exploration.

What are we trying to understand about the community/group?

We are observing the different identities we hold (age, race, class, geography, class etc) and how these shape the way we show and are perceived in different spaces. Individuals begin to pay attention to how they interact, leverage or navigate their identities based on how they experience them. By inviting people to share their experiences with one another afterwards, we start building awareness and empathy for the lived realities in the room and our own blind spots about people's experiences. By listening to people’s shareback, we can quickly learn about which identities appear to ‘matter more’ in a given cultural, social context.

Why is it important for the community’s/group’s development?

Allowing people to deep dive into their own intersectionality allows them to develop more empathy for their own experience and appreciate the nuance of our collective identities. This helps bring the concept of intersectionality much closer, connecting it to their felt sense of belonging and seeing the need to work together on inclusion in everything we do.

At what stage(s) of the research cycle is this method used?

It’s useful to introduce this exercise early on in the research process when you are still developing the critical skills for doing PAR, and prior to getting into the topic of your research/learning process.

What do I need?

A4 paper and marker to prepare the categories before beginning the exercise.

How long does it take?

1 hr

Preparation (Create the Identify Categories)

Define the identity categories beforehand with your co-facilitator and partner organization. It’s a good idea to involve them in the conversation especially if you are not from the place. This will help to make sure you are including the right categories, and excluding any language or framing that might not be appropriate or relevant. Some examples of categories that you can consider include: gender, geography (this refers to where people are from in a region/in a country or neighbourhood in a city), class, religion, sexuality, race, age, other. We would not recommend more than 6 categories and we would suggest that one of the categories be ‘Other’ as this allows people to surface identities that are important to them and might get missed in the collective.

Write one identity category per paper (for example class, race, gender, age, geography, other). Make sure to multiply this by the number of small groups you form. On average you will have groups of 6 people, and each group should have the same categories. So if you have 30 participants in your workshop you will have five groups of six people and you will prepare beforehand your 6 identity categories five times so that each group has their own set of 6 categories.

Place your set of categories in small circles spread out across the room.

Explain The Intentions

When you are ready to start the exercise, explain to people that we will be doing an activity to help explore the different identities we hold and how this shapes the way we move in the world and interact with others. Our intention with this exercise is to become aware of this complexity. Invite people to go stand in one of these small groups. No one group should have more than the 6 categories placed in each circle. Each person should be standing in front of one of the identities.

Explain to them that each circle has a series of identities. Read them out individually and explain what is meant by each. Explain that in a moment we will begin the exercise and the invitation is for each person in silence to think about what this identity means to them. As the facilitator you will offer some questions, and you’ll have them rotate so that by the time we’ve finished everyone has had the chance to reflect on each category.

Guided Walk Through The Identities

Put on a nice reflective song (ideally with no lyrics so it's not distracting) and invite them into the exploration, beginning with the category that is before them and considering some of the following prompts (make sure to tailor them to your specific exploration/context):

How do you experience holding this identity? (Appreciate the nuance within even one single identity)
How does this affect how you move? How are you perceived?
How does this identity support or limit your ability to do your work/what matters to you?
What does it mean to hold all of these identities together as you are doing your work? Which ones open doors for you? Which ones feel limiting?

Give them a minute to think about these questions as they stand before a single category before inviting them to rotate clockwise to the next category and you will again repeat the series of guiding questions. This should feel like a guided moment as opposed to reciting a list of questions for them to resolve so a welcoming tone of voice is helpful to walk them through this exercise. Do the rotations until they are back at the identity category they started with.

Once they have walked through all identity categories invite them to freely walk in between categories, criss-crossing in their circle. Prompt them to think about what it means for them to hold all these categories at once. Which ones seem to be more visible or reacted to and which ones seem invisible?

Individual Writing

Once they’ve completed the guided reflection invite them to stay in silence and grab their notebooks or paper and a pen. Invite them to individually write down what came up for them. In particular:

What did you learn about your experience holding multiple identities?
What can you observe about your own power and positionality?

Small Group Sharing

Have them break into small groups - with the same people that were in the guided walk with them a moment before. Let them know they will now have the opportunity to share anything they would like to/feel comfortable sharing about what insights came up for them related to how they experience intersectionality.

Note this can be an intimate moment of sharing so make sure to give groups at least 25 minutes if not more to debrief. Make sure to give reminders about time when you are close to wrapping up.

Grounding and Debrief

Gently invite everyone back into the larger group. This could be a good moment to do a quick grounding exercise to help people feel comfortable and regulated after a conversation that could move them. This could be as simple as inviting everyone to sit comfortably in their chairs feeling the support of the chair on their backs and their feet rooted into the ground. If you have other grounding practices feel free to use them here. If the group is ok then you can skip the grounding.

Ask if anyone would like to share what came up for them around intersectionality, holding multiple identities, power or positionality through this exercise and especially after listening to each other's experiences. This can often be an enriching conversation as people begin to land the concept of intersectionality in their own words and meanings.

Even though the exercise is simple, if it’s done right it can bring a lot of depth and reflection and intimacy into the group. People have the opportunity to see one another with much more compassion.

This exercise works best when you can invite in a moment of silence and reflection. However being in silence is not automatic or comfortable for everyone at personal or sometimes cultural level.

Your best tool to respond to this possible awkwardness is to acknowledge how unfamiliar or strange this exercise can be for some. We usually also play some slow music that helps shift the group’s attention towards introspection.