Stories of Negotiations of Health, Well-Being and Human Trafficking

My work alongside trafficked women in Southeast Asia situates my interest in advancing our understanding of their experiences. Driven by my practice, questions arose about how women, who have been trafficked, negotiate their health and wellbeing across their lives. Playing with notions of touch in the image allows me to contemplate notions of intimacy, love, and care, as well as violations and boundary crossings. The multiple hands represent the various stories to explore through Narrative Inquiry that influence the health and wellbeing across the lifespan as depicted by the side-by-side placing of the faces a young and older woman. Open hands represent trafficking stories that are disrupted by moments of love and care – non-stereotypical stories of trafficking. Hands that obstruct the faces are questions regarding their stories’ silencing, rooted in hegemonic masculinity that frames social, economic, and political structures that serve to explain women’s lives and experiences. Finally, the overlapping white hands question the continued influence of coloniality that frames the trafficking narrative and rescues – revealing stories of negotiations of health and wellbeing.