{"id":74331,"date":"2026-02-16T07:30:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T06:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/?p=74331"},"modified":"2026-02-17T13:02:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:02:40","slug":"mending-as-a-practice-of-interdependency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/mending-as-a-practice-of-interdependency\/","title":{"rendered":"Mending as a Practice of Interdependency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Textiles are made by knotting, weaving, crocheting or bonding individual strands of fibre together to create an interwoven, interconnected, networked whole. If a textile has ruptured, one can mend it using darning \u2013 a mending technique where one vertically and horizontally interweaves threads across the fabric\u2019s hole. To help me think through interconnection as a practice of mending within the academy, I would like to refer to Donna Haraway\u2019s notion of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">situated<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">knowledge<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, bell hooks\u2019 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">engaged pedagogy <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the thematic focus on <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Embodied Knowledge(s)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> within the minor studies course Cultural Diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In critiquing the gaze of scientific objectivity, Haraway introduces situatedness to propose that knowledge is always born of a context, situated in time and space, and inconceivable without a multitude of relations, which is say that knowledge is entangled and interwoven and not abstracted and separate. The objective gaze, she argues, comes from the position of the white men who \u201cclaim the power to see and not be seen, to represent while escaping representation.\u201d <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> Donna Haraway, \u201cSituated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial,\u201d <i>Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988)<\/i> p. 575-599 <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It is this position that we supposedly call \u201cneutral\u201d. She continues:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All Western cultural narratives about objectivity are allegories of the ideologies governing the relations of what we call mind and body, distance and responsibility. Feminist objectivity is about limited location and situated knowledge, not about transcendence and splitting of subject and object. It allows us to become answerable for what we learn how to see. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[2]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> Ibid. <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Situated knowledge is for Haraway a feminist objectivity, one that understands that intellectual, emotional, sensorial, and physical knowledges are enmeshed, and human and non-human life are interwoven and in relation to one another. To me, embodiment is to be situated, describing the fundamental condition of being a part of the fabric of life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The thematic focus of the Cultural Diversity minor where I\u2019ve taught for several years is the notion of Embodied Knowledge(s). Echoing Haraway, we take the position \u201cthat without the bodily, we would not be able to organize ourselves in our environment: we would not know where\/what we are, what\/how we are learning or how we can communicate about our feelings, experiences and modes of being.\u201d <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[3]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> Teana Mammah-Boston, Cultural Diversity Minor Course Outline. Themes and Goals. Last accessed Nov 2019. <a href=\"https:\/\/1920.mywdka.nl\/WDKCDVPRAM\/minor\/theme-and-goals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"footnote_url_wrap\">https:\/\/1920.mywdka.nl\/WDKCDVPRAM\/minor\/theme-and-goals\/<\/span><\/a> <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0The biggest difference teaching in this course compared to the various other courses I\u2019ve taught previously within Willem de Kooning Academy is that we challenge the Enlightenment idea that the production and formulation of knowledge can only be a rational, abstracted and external affair. Many courses have an approach that tries to tackle large, complex problems \u2013 for example global politics or climate crisis and sustainability \u2013 but overlook the daily implications of how these crises influence us locally and on a bodily level. Generally, there are expectations to produce work that addresses these large complex subjects, however students often feel removed from them because connections between societal, community and personal links have not been made palpable. As a result, students feel pressure to make grand concepts external to themselves, rather than listening to their experiences or working within local contexts.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_74380\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_11-283x400.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74380\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74380 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_11.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_11.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_11-283x400.jpg 283w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_11-768x1085.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74380\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mending binaries<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This disconnection mirrors my own formal education in Rotterdam, where the default teaching position was the divorce of the mind and body, emotional and political. In the design educational context where abstractions were valued, I felt that embodied knowledges had no place in my work. That is why I feel a personal obligation as a practice teacher working in Cultural Diversity Minor to begin where the senses begin \u2013 that is, in our bodies \u2013 by interrogating how the body organises our knowing, feeling and being, and by extension how that shapes our understanding\u00a0 of the way we gaze on our own bodies and those of others. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[4]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_4\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ibid. <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We should work harder to legitimise the idea that it\u2019s perfectly valid for students to derive concepts and ideas from their experience of the world while the body is fully engaged in all of its senses \u2013 embodied, critical and responsible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another way of looking at embodiment is through bell hooks\u2019 <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">engaged pedagogy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 an understanding of wholeness that places importance on the relationship between the teacher and students as well as on the interconnection between mind, body and spirit. This kind of pedagogy approaches the student as a \u201cwhole\u201d human being striving for intellectual and creative nourishment as well as knowledge on how to live in the world. It emphasises wellbeing; students and teachers alike wish to heal and grow, and they are empowered by the process. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_5');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_5');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_5\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[5]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_5\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0bell hooks, <i>Teaching to Transgress<\/i> (Great Britain: Routledge, 1994) p. 15 <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_74362\" style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_2-402x400.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74362\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74362 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"760\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_2.jpg 760w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_2-402x400.jpg 402w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_2-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74362\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Invisible mend by Isabelle Godfroy. Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stoppage-art.com\/metier.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.stoppage-art.com\/metier.html<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_74365\" style=\"width: 778px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_5-595x396.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74365\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74365 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_5.jpg 768w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_5-595x396.jpg 595w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74365\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yoko Ono\u2019s Mend piece, 2015<\/p><\/div>\n<h3><b><i>Mending as care<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years ago, I had a breakdown. It is hard to describe what really happened, but it was as though dissenting ghosts of my past halted my body and forced me to confront that which needed to be confronted. It forced me to bring to the surface what I had repressed for so long. Sometimes I\u2019ll refer to this moment as the shedding of an armour, one that had been slowly calcifying since early childhood to shield me from the long-term exposure to painful experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the months after my armour was taken off, what I found underneath were untreated wounds that had been accumulating and festering for thirty years or so. During this time I was still teaching but not making work in the same way as I did previously. One of the few things I could do was mend damaged clothes: a hat with a thousand holes, a forgotten sweater, overalls that I\u2019d worn for over a decade. I returned to my first love \u2013 textile \u2013 something I had never previously allowed into my \u201cserious\u201d art and design practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In my state of fragility, mending and<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">journaling were all I could muster the energy for. I retreated to textile and text. Here I mean retreat in both senses of the word: a withdrawal from moving forwards <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a safe haven to rest and recharge. Later on, I learned that the root of the English words \u201ctext\u201d and \u201ctextile\u201d comes from the Latin word <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">texere,<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> meaning to weave. Many expressions about writing come from the rich world of cloth-making. According to an ancient metaphor, \u201ca thought is a thread, and the raconteur is a spinner of yarns \u2013 but the true storyteller, the poet, is a weaver. [\u2026] After long practice, their work took on such an even, flexible texture that they called the written page a\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">textus<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which means cloth.\u201d <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_6');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_6');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_6\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[6]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_6\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Robert Bringhurst, <i>The Elements of Typographic Style<\/i> (Hartley &amp; Marks, Publishers, 1996) p. 25 <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_6').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_6', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0It was such a pleasant surprise to learn that cloth-making predates text-making. I had assumed cloth-making succeeded text-making and not the other way around, which goes to show my internalised bias towards intellect over craft. Journaling allowed me to weave disjointed thoughts together in an attempt to find imaginative ways to dress psychic wounds, and one such way was that of mending textile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_74368\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_3-595x368.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74368\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74368 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_3.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_3-595x368.jpg 595w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_3-768x475.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74368\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Myself and my mother in her mending shop in Glebe, Sydney<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_74371\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_6-300x400.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74371\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74371 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_6.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_6.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_6-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_6-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74371\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mum in her shop<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Textile has been my elementary mode of expression for as long as I can remember, despite being ashamed to be public about it. Although I have done some textile work in the past, I hid textiles in my closet \u2013 working with the medium of textile was something I wanted to seriously explore but was too afraid to be judged. Steeped in the belief that clothing and textile were unimportant, feminine, superficial, too ordinary, without \u201creal\u201d agency and \u2013 god forbid \u2013\u00a0 politically ineffective, I was the most judgmental figure towards myself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why is it that textile and fashion are often looked down as a lesser form of making in art and design education? Is it because textile arts have long been feminised and restricted to the domestic sphere? (Yes, obviously.) Have crafts been seen as lesser forms of knowledge because they pertain to tacit knowledge? (Yes, also.) This hierarchy of knowledge is reflected within different education contexts I\u2019ve been. In Sydney were I first studied, fashion was only available as a vocational study, whereas design and art were available at university level. Throughout my Dutch education, where all creative studies are within the vocational education system, fashion studies at the WdKA caters to the commercial industry, with little critical discourse.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps another reason why we relate to clothing in this superficial way is because it is linked to the relationship between the surface and personhood, as suggested by fashion scholar Sophie Woodward. Western thought separates the inner intangible self, she claims, which is located deep beneath from the \u201cfrivolity\u201d of the surface. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_7');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_74331_1('footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_7');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_7\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">[7]<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_7\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Susanne Kuchler and Daniel Miller, ed., <i>Clothing as Material Culture<\/i> (New York: Berg, 2005) p. 21 <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_7').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_74331_1_7', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });<\/script><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0According to this Western philosophy of being, clothes simply hang on the periphery of one\u2019s body and are of no real importance compared to the body\u2019s inner sanctum where one\u2019s \u201ctrue self\u201d resides. This perspective, however, doesn\u2019t account for alternative and non-Western understandings that the self is simultaneously located and also constructed \u2013 that is to say that the self \u201clives\u201d within us but also \u201clives\u201d on the surface as appearance, which is constantly shaped by external relationships. One is not more important than the other.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_74374\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_9-485x400.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74374\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74374 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_9.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"618\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_9.jpg 750w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_9-485x400.jpg 485w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74374\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Various joss paper designs<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a psychological perspective, in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trauma and Recovery<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Judith Herman talks about recovery as reconnecting or creating new connections to pieces that have been torn apart through trauma. To understand this psychologist\u2019s view in relation to pedagogy, perhaps the rupturing that occurs within an institutional setting in the West is precisely the \u201cimperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal\u201d authoritative legacy that has fragmented bodies of knowledge, and that continues to replicate and reproduce these constructions as norms. In a small way, mending might be conceived of as a conscious intervention to stitch and meld together the binaries created from being violently separated over hundreds of years. With this awareness, it may carry the potential to de-hierarchise, reconnect, repair, care and find new paths of interdependence and relations. If practice + theory = praxis, mending might also be positioned as the +, interconnecting the two.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_74377\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_10-593x400.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-74377\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-74377 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_10.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_10.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_10-593x400.jpg 593w, https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mending_and_Interdependency_10-768x518.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-74377\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Various joss paper designs<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[Featured Image: Visible mending by Kate Sekules. All the images are courtesy of Amy Suo Wu]<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_74331_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_74331_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_74331_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_74331_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> Donna Haraway, \u201cSituated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial,\u201d <i>Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988)<\/i> p. 575-599 <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> Ibid. <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> Teana Mammah-Boston, Cultural Diversity Minor Course Outline. Themes and Goals. Last accessed Nov 2019. <a href=\"https:\/\/1920.mywdka.nl\/WDKCDVPRAM\/minor\/theme-and-goals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span class=\"footnote_url_wrap\">https:\/\/1920.mywdka.nl\/WDKCDVPRAM\/minor\/theme-and-goals\/<\/span><\/a> <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Ibid. <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_5');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_5\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>5<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0bell hooks, <i>Teaching to Transgress<\/i> (Great Britain: Routledge, 1994) p. 15 <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_6');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_6\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>6<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Robert Bringhurst, <i>The Elements of Typographic Style<\/i> (Hartley &amp; Marks, Publishers, 1996) p. 25 <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_74331_1_7');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_74331_1_7\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>7<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Susanne Kuchler and Daniel Miller, ed., <i>Clothing as Material Culture<\/i> (New York: Berg, 2005) p. 21 <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_74331_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_74331_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_74331_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_74331_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_74331_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_74331_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_74331_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_74331_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_74331_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_74331_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_74331_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_74331_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_74331_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_74331_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Textiles are made by knotting, weaving, crocheting or bonding individual strands of fibre together to create an interwoven, interconnected, networked whole. If a textile has ruptured, one can mend it&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2975,"featured_media":74408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7184],"tags":[7232,7231,7230,7191,7233,7234,7228,7190,7192,7229],"coauthors":[7208],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mending and Interdependency: Practices of Care in Education<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amy Sou Wu writes about 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