New Naratif empowers Southeast Asians by giving them the information and tools to be fully engaged and participatory citizens.

Comic

Growing Together: A Guide to Collective Care

…and why self-care isn’t enough.

by Minxi Chua and Namsai Khaobor 18 October 20216 April 2022

Writer Minxi Chua Artist Namsai Khaobor Editors Charis Loke, Jacob Goldberg

Resources

For further reading, see:

Breaking Isolation: Self Care and Community Care Tools for Our People – This article by the Audre Lorde Project provides a template for organisational wellness planning.
A Zine For Collective Care: Chinese and Southeast Asian Creative Responses to Covid-19 – This zine is available to read for free and compiles artwork and writing produced by Chinese and Southeast Asian creatives, made during collective care workshops organised in response to COVID-19.
Love as the Practice of Freedom – This essay by theorist and activist bell hooks describes the concept of a “love ethic”, which can also be understood as a care ethic in the context of this explainer.

Read a conversation with the creative team behind the comic on how they came up with it.

Explore related comics on New Naratif:

Minxi and Namsai on Crafting a Comic About Care

Gently, You March On

Artists Respond: Hindsight Is 2020

Enough: Reflections on the Women’s March

Minxi Chua

Minxi Chua is a Malaysian writer, editor, translator and researcher. She has studied and worked in Beijing, New York, Singapore, and Manchester; and, for much of this time, has been writing a novel on mental illness, the postcolonial Malaysian psyche, intergenerational female trauma, and chickens.

More by Minxi Chua

Namsai Khaobor

Namsai is an independent artist and illustrator. She is now making images and telling stories from her hometown, Chiangmai, Thailand. Her work is inspired by the mundanity of life, nature and poetry in many forms. Find her work at namsai-k.carbonmade.com, Instagram (@namsai_k) and Twitter (@namsai__k).

More by Namsai Khaobor