ABSTRACT:
Language is powerful. It helps us connect to each other and shapes our view of the world. We learn and absorb new concepts through communication with each other, for which language comprehension is key. Ultimately, those that control language hold power to make decisions by controlling access to information and to the dominant discourse. In this global imperialist and capitalist heteropatriarchy, English is deemed the dominant language at the expense of marginalizing others that are spoken by a majority of brown, indigenous and black people. Language justice is about building and sustaining multilingual spaces in our organizations and social movements, so that everyone’s voice can be heard both as an individual and as part of a diversity of communities and cultures. Valuing language justice means recognizing the social and political dimensions of language and language access, while working to dismantle language barriers, equalize power dynamics, and build strong communities for social and racial justice. If harm reduction is a practice with the ultimate goal to save lives and seek liberation through centering and uplifting equity, it must be firmly rooted in the principles of language justice and cultural safety to be truly decolonial and transformative. In this organized workshop, we will describe how to build harm reduction organizations and collaborations working towards language justice and share lessons learned in the Global North, role-modeled by the Global South, to further influence harm reduction to center it everywhere and to develop adequate resources to assure people who use drugs and practitioners who speak any languages join us.