Decoloniality is a critical understanding to gain if you want to conduct business with greater integrity, lead from a place of grounded self-knowledge, and reclaim Ancestral Wealth through a lens of healing and growth.

I believe Ancestral Wealth Reclamation is achievable for anyone who wants to learn who they really are and grow real wealth… wealth that helps us create a better future for humanity and the earth.

But to discover the exact nature of that wealth, and our role to play in stewarding and growing it, we must be willing to challenge everything we’ve been told about who we are.

We must embark on a journey of discovery that expands our knowledge beyond what we’ve been taught in schools, jobs, and the media.

This means gaining true understanding of a topic that is often discussed, but rarely understood: Decoloniality.

A lot of people want to decolonize healthcare, healing, and business. Some would say that’s what we are doing in the holistic healing industry. 

What I observe too often is that people don’t fully understand what it truly means to “decolonize”. 

I hope to explain what I believe decoloniality is, while also understanding that I don’t serve as an authority on decoloniality - I’m just one person, living my unique decolonial journey.

Decoloniality must involve addressing our current paradigms of war and imperialism. I am anti-war, which means I believe war is never justified, even if it seems unavoidable. I am also anti-imperialist, which means I am against the systems and cultures that promote war both explicitly and implicitly.

When two imperialist powers fight each other, I do not side with either of them against the other; I stand with the common people on both sides, who are suffering as a result of decisions they did not make.

I also stand with the global indigenous population, which includes indigenous people of the global south. Without indigenous people, we will forget who we are and where we all come from. Indigenous people are those who actively live by the principles and practices - including the spiritual principles and practices - of their pre-imperial indigenous ancestors, as well as living in peaceful community on their shared ancestral land.

Indigenous people from all over the world contribute to decoloniality, just by being who they are and living in line with their indigenous cultures and practices. Those with heritage in colonized nations and diasporas, who are actively seeking to embody who their people and cultures were before they were colonized, can also contribute to our collective decolonial process.

I fall into the latter category as a diasporic person, with one side of my heritage descended from the Baiyue people of Vietnam, Hainan, and southern China, and the other side of my heritage as Ashkenazi Jewish, constituted of both Levantine (Canaanite) and Eastern European ancestry. I am actively developing and growing my personal spiritual practice in pursuit of greater alignment with the practices of my indigenous Baiyue, Eastern European, and Canaanite ancestors. I worship Baiyue and Canaanite gods and goddesses.

It’s easy to want decoloniality in theory, but the practice of achieving it is much harder. The question of “land back” often brings controversy and discord when there are disagreements about who the land truly belongs to.

The “cultural reclamation” aspect of decoloniality also has many pitfalls, since decoloniality has become a buzzword in certain subcultures and business niches. Many who claim to be “decolonizing” in certain cultural arenas are in fact “recolonizing” by imposing a new flavor of colonial paradigms on top of the familiar paradigm.

We may also fall into the trap of “decolonizing” one layer of culture, but neglecting to apply the same practice to deeper or opposing layers of colonial influence.

For example, when my grandfather worked with the Viet Minh communist movement to resist French rule in Vietnam, one might believe that was decolonial, because it was an effort to push out a colonizing power.

However, the Viet Minh was only focused on resisting one layer - “Western imperialism” - while ignoring and excusing non-Western imperialism. They received significant financial support from the Chinese government, upheld a positive sentiment of Chinese influence, kept a mentality that was loyal to the history of China having colonized Vietnam in the past, and supported China to continue exerting its political power in Vietnam.

Communism itself has also served as a “re-colonizing” paradigm, seeking to impose and take credit for a so-called “new” economic system while ignoring the communal aspects of indigenous life that had already been developed. Karl Marx himself was an imperialist who supported Britain’s colonial rule over India until he decided Indian independence would provide more resources for his cause. He also promoted hatred against Jews. For these reasons, I do not consider communism or any leftist movements to be truly decolonial.

White supremacy and racism are real issues we need to address through a decolonial lens. The very concept of whiteness, the way all races are defined, and the way we are classified into them are a product of colonialism and imperialism. No “race” or “ethnicity” category we fill out on a census form is a true description of who we really are, or who our ancestors really were.

Heritage and culture are deeply important, and we must move beyond labels and identities that were designed for us by those who seek to divide and control us. As we discover who we really are, we will learn that we are more unique than we thought, and also that we have more in common than we thought.

The healing arts as well as entrepreneurship provide excellent contexts to practice decoloniality. We were healers and entrepreneurs before colonialism and imperialism ruled our economies and healthcare systems. We all have an opportunity to discover and reclaim what both healing and business meant for our people, and how we will embody that purpose in our present lives.

Regardless of which economic systems are used to pay for healthcare; whether it is socialized or free market, healthcare delivered under colonial or imperialist rule suffers from corruption and inequity, and is not true health care. When I speak about the Healthcare-Industrial Complex, I am referring to our broad ecosystem of healthcare that attempts to work and function under imperialist influence.

Healthcare is uncontrollably expensive because the Healthcare-Industrial Complex applies extremely inefficient and destructive assumptions to how healthcare should work, while allowing both corporate and governmental interests to hold far too much power, to the point that it serves as sick-care that also keeps the people sick and at risk.

These assumptions are a direct result of colonialism and imperialism. Imperialists do not want the people to heal. They want us to be just barely well enough to go to work and go to war, while staying sick and scared enough to defer our power and agency to others. 

When I work with holistic health entrepreneurs, my priority is to help them build practices that empower people to pursue real healing and sustainable, thriving health.

If we all pursue a system of healthcare that prioritizes real healing, we may find success, but it will take overcoming deep power imbalances.

One big obstacle to overcome is the political paradigm that classifies those who care about natural health as “right-wing”, and those who want accessible healthcare for the whole community as “left-wing.” This prevents us from joining forces and working together to create a truly life-giving healthcare system that helps all of us. 

This is why I consider my work to be political, and why I believe talking about politics is critical for our industry.

A portion of my work supports allopathic healthcare. Having one foot in the mainstream system helps me use my talents to help the majority of people in the community exactly where they are. I actively show up in the healthcare system as it is, so I can help patients stay safe and access the best care they can get when it is needed.

Meanwhile, I support healing arts entrepreneurship, so we can start to build better systems to replace the old ones when they become no longer relevant.

We will achieve greater truth and integrity when we can face our current reality, understand how we got here, and allow more life-giving practices to grow and replace the harmful ones.

A significant proportion of healing work done globally is based in Hindu and Vedic culture, whether that is yoga, Ayurveda, or spiritual practices that encourage us to connect with devas or explore the spiritual teachings of Sanatan Dharma.

My indigenous Baiyue ancestors worshiped their own localized versions of Hindu gods and goddesses, and so do I. Thus, I stand in solidarity with the Hindu community, both within Bharat and in the diaspora.

I know many good-hearted and earnest people who either identify themselves as being part of the Hindutva movement, or get labeled as Hindutva even if they don’t identify with it specifically. Many of these people offer valuable insight on how the integrity of Hindu/Vedic/Sanatan Dharma culture can be preserved, so their voices are valuable for the healing arts community to hear.

A disturbing trend in leftist communities, particularly in movements that claim to “decolonize yoga”, is to discourage and demean Hindus who want to create stronger communities with each other, stand up for their culture, and protect the integrity of their spiritual and healing practices. This comes in the form of accusing Hindus of “Hindu nationalism”, which is framed as the Hindu version of right-wing Christian nationalism. The fact is, western concepts of "right-wing nationalism" should never be applied to indigenous cultures living in the Global South.

Anti-Hindu bigots place excessive attention on casteism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Hindu culture. This is often hypocritical and blown out of proportion. On top of that, it perpetuates colonial myths.

For example, the ancient Vedic concepts of varna and jati do not in fact reflect a hierarchical caste system, but were twisted and manipulated by British colonial influence as a way to leverage power and break the community apart in India so it could be more easily ruled. There is no evidence that “caste” existed in the form we perceive it as today in Vedic times, so caste should not be considered as an inherent part of Hinduism.

The idea of rejecting or reforming Sanatan Dharma to do away with caste oppression perpetuates false assumptions about pre-colonial Hindu culture. Hinduism does not need to be rejected or reformed - instead, we must decolonize our assumptions about it.

Furthermore, Hindus need to preserve their freedom of religion, which means calling out the historical injustices of Islamic imperialism, as well as the violence perpetrated upon their people by radical Islamists.

While no culture is perfect, and there has been corruption and misconduct in the Hindu community as there is in all communities, we must be critical of the accusations of “Hindu nationalism” and always look for hidden agendas that accompany them. More often than not, these accusations go beyond critiquing specific behavior, and seek to discredit and vilify Hindus as a whole group.

Some Western scholars who criticize "Hindutva", such as Audrey Truschke, hide behind a front of liberal/leftist academia and claim to support the Muslim community, when in fact they are connected with Christian missionary groups seeking to expand evangelical outreach in India. They are simply using a front of advocating for Muslims as a way to cover over efforts to convert people to Christianity. This is why we need to keep our eyes open for hidden agendas, always with a decolonial lens.

Any holistic practitioner whose work is inspired by Vedic and Hindu cultures owes it to the present-day Hindu community (and also to ourselves) to examine these issues, seek to understand their reality, and support the Hindu community in its thriving. If we desire to seek benefit from yoga, Ayurveda, Tantra, Vedic numerology and astrology, or any personal connection we may have with Hindu gods and goddesses, we must give proper honor and respect to the people who spent millennia of labor and struggle to preserve this valuable spiritual culture.

If we try to use someone’s healing practices without helping to protect their people, we will be left with a hollow shell, devoid of real healing or humanity.

But when we support and stand up for the people who steward healing, we will realize a deeper, rooted, collective impact from our healing work.

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