283 Stitching and weaving resilience: Tatreez as a collective healing practice for Palestinian women in Belgium

Abstract OP 19: Mental Health 2, B302 (FCSH), September 4, 2025, 13:30 - 14:30 Aims Since the Nakba (the catastrophe) in 1948, Palestinians have been continuously racialized and dehumanized under settler colonial rule, enduring systemic oppression through forced displacement, war, and genocide. This sustained violence has resulted in profound mental health consequences, including transgenerational, collective, and ongoing colonial racial trauma, both in Palestine and across the diaspora. Tatreez, the traditional Palestinian embroidery, has long symbolized cultural identity, resistance, and resilience. This paper explores how Tatreez circles serve as collective healing spaces for Palestinian women in Belgium. Methods Monthly Tatreez gatherings were initiated by an anti-racist NGO and a pro-Palestinian organization in response to the violence in Gaza in 2024 for Palestinian women as a space for communal care. Using a decolonial lens and creative participatory methods (including Tatreez, community mapping, and Photovoice), this study engages with the participants to examine the significance of these gatherings for their individual and collective well-being. Results Findings point to the essential role of culturally grounded spaces in fostering collective healing and care within racialized and traumatized communities. These gatherings serve as healing counter-spaces where participants can grieve, process historical and contemporary trauma, and cultivate resilience through shared cultural practices (e.g., Tatreez, Palestinian food, and music). These gatherings foster collective resilience and resistance through Tatreez as a vessel for expressing colonial and racial trauma while reaffirming identities, resisting historical erasure, and reclaiming agency. Additionally, this paper highlights the critical need for decolonial, trauma-informed research approaches that ethically engage with communities affected by colonial and racial violence. Conclusion This explorative study highlights decolonial creative health practices as a promising approach to addressing racial trauma and advocates for integrating culturally embedded healing methods into care frameworks. It underscores the necessity of Indigenous and decolonial research methodologies to ethically engage with racialized communities and inform racism-responsive healthcare.