Kaitlyn Hatch - Queering Buddhist Art: Drawing a Path to Inclusivity

Choosing To Create with Desiree Aspiras

“Any system of oppression can't be part of the sacred because it's a perversion of the sacred. Because systems of oppression create the idea that some people are more sacred than others, and that's wrong. … Therefore, I have work to do all the time about being aware of how I believe those messages, and how they are constantly bombarding me, and trying to convince me of their rightness. What am I always doing to bring awareness to them, to be present with them, to acknowledge what is my responsibility versus what is the system and how within the system can I push against it at all times? And then what are the areas where I can just model that sacredness that a system like cisheteronormativity, for example, doesn't believe is sacred.”
- Kaitlyn Hatch

Kait Hatch is a multi-genre writer, mixed-media artist, Buddhist chaplain, philosopher, and community organizer, whose unique identity as a queer, disabled, racialized white Canadian with Métis, British and French colonialist ancestry informs their worldview and work.

In this episode, we explore how art, contemplative practice, and social justice intersect and inform Kait’s work creating contemporary Thangka pieces depicting Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in all different embodiments resisting dominant gender and cultural norms, and the Sacred Love/Sacred Lives mixed-media series celebrating disabled, trans, and queer folks.

Links to topics mentioned in this episode:
Learn more about Kaitlyn Hatch's work, her Sacred Love/Sacred Lives project, and her Representation Matters series
Find out more about the process of Thangka painting
Learn more about the Thousand Armed Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri
Read Pema Chodron’s essay on practicing peace or this piece on how lojong (mind training) awakens the heart
Listen to Zenju Earthlyn Manuel discuss The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality and Gender

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