iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 12/11/2023

Psy systems said my emotions were too big and out of control, my altered states too strange and dangerous. But the thing is, like many others, my experiences of injustice have been big, out of control, strange & dangerous.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 16/10/2023

A cushion from my #SliceSilence project. Folks who use self-injury are consistently silenced & made to cover our bodies as though we're dangerous. Yet most of us self-injure because of trauma & injustice. We're silenced about those, too. Offer justice, be the person who will see & listen.

Cushion painted with the words: What if your silence is a bigger threat than my body?

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

A short film on my Slice/Silence project is now live on YouTube, following yesterday's premiere in Sydney. It was filmed last year, before I knew I’d be extending this exhibition into a PhD. This is an ongoing story about trying to grow creative, anti-carceral alternatives youtu.be/2bDnBerUBlo?...

youtu.be

Slice/Silence: A survivor-led art project about self-injury, trauma and silencing.

Warning: Viewers are advised that the following film contains stories of resistance, courage, determination, creativity and survival.This short film tells th...

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Mush @morelsupport.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

I have been feeling so crushed by the carceral system lately and thinking a lot about Mad Liberation. Heartbreakingly, I think maybe, our only true liberation is in our deaths. But I really want liberation in our lives, not just our deaths 1/4 #MadSky

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 03/10/2023

Every time there’s news coverage of rapes in mental health units, it feels unbearable. I think of politicians, public servants & clinical ‘leaders’ who’ve known about this for years, yet done almost nothing. Rape is the norm in mental health services. And it’s an open secret.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

Seeking survival & activist strategies for flying while fat. Got a flight next week and I can't stop thinking about the dreadful person who publicly fat shamed me & refused to sit next to me on a plane earlier this year. I've got my threatening backpack 😉 but extra tips are welcomed. Sigh.

photo of black backpack with words painted on it: I eat fat shamers

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 01/10/2023

Feeling this. Every time I see someone describe an arsehole as a lunatic, nutjob, psychotic, unhinged, crazy, schizo, etc I’m reminded those people must think I’m an arsehole too. They must think folks like me deserve psychiatric incarceration. Their sanism props up the carceral state.

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Disposable Human @disposablehuman.bsky.social · 28/09/2023

Ummmm so I get to speak to Ruthie Arggggggggg Come along and hear it!! I will try and be articulate! www.eventbrite.com.au/e/radical-an...

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 26/09/2023

Feeling sad for younger me who didn’t see her abuse & oppression. She kept reaching out to perpetrators for support, getting hurt again & again, then blamed herself for it all. And yet, I can’t blame her. She knew of no other choices, and she was just trying to survive.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 26/09/2023

I don't use or identify with diagnostic labels from psychiatry/DSM... though many were forced on me over the years. I'd never deny anyone the right to use them if they find them helpful; I respect choice. But I want to make space for folks like me who experience them as the language of oppression.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 26/09/2023

I'm deep in making work today, but chronic pain and my muse are arm-wrestling over who gets my focus. Currently re-working this consent cushion with tiny little stitches and listening to its vibe. No no no no no no no no no no no no no no. I said no.

white fabric covered with the word 'no', mostly in fabric markers, but some with tiny little stitches in black thread.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 26/09/2023

This kind of early intervention approach always sounded dodgy to me. Seems I was right. As a kid slowly going mad, I didn’t need psychiatry. I needed love, enough food, freedom from hate speech & bullying, someone to notice the abuse, & support to process it. www.madinamerica.com/2023/09/earl...

madinamerica.com

Early Intervention in Ultrahigh Risk for Psychosis Ineffective

Few transition to psychosis anyway, relapse rates were high after treatment, maintenance therapy was ineffective, and no treatment was more effective than any other.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

These are remnants of the mental health act piñata we smashed at Emancipation Day, hosted by Grace (@morelsupport.bsky.social). A day of solidarity to mark Grace’s anniversary of emancipation from psychiatry. A powerful, joyful day, but outrageous that we need it. Mental health laws are grotesque.

Photo of broken pieces of papier mache made out of torn pieces of the mental health act.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

I know there's probably good reasons for it, but it just feels icky getting unsolicited letters from the govt telling me to do bowel cancer tests and, most recently, a cervical screening. I just don't want the government talking to me about my bum or my cervix, thank you very much. Go awayyyyy

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 21/09/2023

There was a complete disconnect between Free Britney & a dismantling of institutional sanism & or cultural sanism. The same people who got on the bandwagon for her freedom mocked her for her mental health before & after. And zero consideration of the systemic harm done to people who aren't famous.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

We feel emotional pain inside ourselves so it’s easy to believe that the problem is *in* us, in our unbalanced, dysregulated brains. But what if that's a lie? What if the problem isn’t biological or psychological at all? If it's sociopolitical, in issues like violence, hate, inequity & oppression?

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

Did a social work lecture this morning on suicide and risk assessments - from a mad/psych survivor perspective. I enjoyed challenging students to question why their version of carceral violence should be considered any better than my chosen forms of violence to self.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 20/09/2023

OK I'm off to talk on a mad + crip + criminology panel at Uni Melb about 'care' as carcerality. I'm the mad one, in all the senses of that word. Carceral systems are NOT care, they're just more violence.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 18/09/2023

It’s natural for you to feel scared if someone talks to you about suicide. But if you want to be helpful, then it’s important to understand that your fear is likely to get in the way of that. Your fear can hurt us. What do I mean?

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Mush @morelsupport.bsky.social · 11/09/2023

3/ “Towards Zero Suicides” means keeping us alive, by any means necessary, including with force and violence. It is about your fear of us dying, not about what we actually need.

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Mush @morelsupport.bsky.social · 11/09/2023

2/ Your safety plans are about keeping YOU safe from liability but do nothing for my distress.

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Mush @morelsupport.bsky.social · 11/09/2023

Hey suicide prevention, how about every time you encourage people to “seek professional help” you also add the disclaimer that we will likely be patronised and either ignored or incarcerated if we dare speak our truth or don't want to do your coercive safety plans.🧵

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 10/09/2023

Let's be clear. If you 'accuse' someone of being 'borderline' or having a 'PD' during a discussion about abuse... ...you out yourself as an abuser or abuse apologist. So tired of this. It's an old & ugly strategy to silence survivors, brought to you by the patriachy & his good mate, psychiatry.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 10/09/2023

A short film on my #SliceSilence project premieres 10 Oct in Sydney at this event (includes talk & discussion panel): www.events.unsw.edu.au/event/slice-... For psych survivors & anyone interested in self-injury, trauma, silencing, peer support, creative & noncarceral psychiatric alternatives.

Photo of cushion with the word 'unspeakable' embroidered into the surface.
Heading: slice/silence.
Subhead: Cutting through the silencing of self-injury, trauma and injustice. Stitching emancipation together. A survivor-led project.

Heading: Short film - premieres 10 Oct UNSW

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Chantal James @chantalalive.blacksky.app · 05/09/2023

I already saw the sanism with comparing the RICO charges to something "batshit." Keep marginalizing the mad to describe calculated mechanisms of oppression & we will not be in the position to confront dangers posed by people who are very much in their right minds.

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 06/09/2023

Maybe a reason I shudder at the language of emotion "regulation" & "dysregulation" is the carceral roots of these words. Emotions exist to connect & communicate with us about important things, not to be subjegated. What happens if we imagine emotional emancipation & liberation instead?

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 05/09/2023

Mental health systems love promoting #resilience. To me it's code for: "Toughen up, get better at taking a punch" Resilience narratives collude with oppressive power. Let's talk instead about liberation from being punched. Useful little paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Indigo Daya @indigodaya.bsky.social · 25/08/2023

I make mad art. I hope my work offers sites of collective justice-making. Where we can testify & connect in new ways, beyond the violence, pathologising & individualising of carceral psychiatry. ‘Tears’ is from my #SliceSilence project on self-injury. Sometimes, our skin cries when we can’t.

Close up of art cushion. The words ‘tears’ has been cut out, and the letters hang down loosely.

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