Vina Duran is VinaJoy (Duran) Barham. Duran is their mother’s maiden name and they are part of the Pilipinx diaspora from the Ilocos region. They are an unschooling mama, writer and a guide. They share a lot of words on Facebook and some glimpses of their life on Instagram. They have a wide variety of projects they hope to work on, including writing a memoir and a children’s book with Pilipinx-American children as main characters. They also dream of gathering Pilipinx families and re-connect with their culture + ancestral ways. But the thread that weaves all their work is about moving towards their most authentic life. What does it mean to live their truest selves? What do they need to heal and let go of? How do they support that healing? How do they prioritize lives who face the most systemic barriers in living their most authentic life? They’re still sorting it all out.But mostly, they feel drawn to talk about parenting, healing and liberation. Parenting + Unschooling: They are here for dismantling beliefs they have about parenting (and education) as well as the systems that keep them from raising their children in freedom. That for them expresses itself in identifying the ways they have internalized oppressive beliefs as a parent in partnership with their children as well as the ways the systems marginalize caretakers and children. It requires digging deeper in their conditioning, uncovering ways that their own trauma and wounds shape their relationship with their children and intentionally carve a different path towards wholeness and liberation. Talking about parenting organically leads them to talk about their own healing journey.Healing + Liberation: Writing about their own healing journey is something that they feel compelled to do. Sharing is a part of their medicine. It forces them to cultivate awareness of their own life, helps them distill their observations about their healing path. It’s a practice in vulnerability for them. They also try to bring an intersectional lens to their notes on healing and are practicing looking at healing from an anti-oppression anti-colonial framework. Which also naturally leads them to talk about liberation from these systems. What does it mean for them to get free? And to support others in getting free? Their perspectives are informed by the privileges & gifts they hold and the marginalizations they fight to end. Their delivery is blunt, honest, vulnerable, irreverent. But they’re here to share all of it, the messy process and all other shit they dig from the depths as well as the dreams and visions they have for a better world. So thank you for being here and supporting all of this. They appreciate you.
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