We are four women battling COVID-19, from our homes in Montreal and Gatineau, Quebec and in Caen, France. We are artists and feminists bound together through our shared experiences of embodying a disease that has baffled the world. We were drawn together first through mutual acquaintances in the art world, and then became more tightly bound by providing each other with essential support -- through constant presence, witchy knowledge and unconventional care practices, in response to medical communities that have not been able to meet our needs. We are Amélie Deschamps, Becca Blackwood, Krista Muir and WhiteFeather Hunter. We share an eerie similarity of atypical symptoms not talked about in mainstream media, such as pericarditis and whole body neurological damage, along with the complications surrounding these serious ailments caused by COVID-19. One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been fighting for our lives while being disbelieved or dismissed by doctors, family members and humanity at large. As feminists, we know that this is a pervasive problem for women navigating the medical landscape. We have believed in each other, and that has truly helped us survive and work towards recovery from this disease. What has also helped a great deal, has been an invaluable resource facilitated by a queer, feminist network based in NYC: The Body Politic COVID-19 Recovery Support Group. This group has gained over 5000 members just through word of mouth, including many medical professionals infected on the front lines, and has provided us with a wellspring of information, free resources and the kinds of validation we’ve needed. It has not escaped us that the most cutting edge, respectful and caring information about the disease has been made accessible through an intersectional, queer, feminist network. This whole thing has been dramatically life altering. We hope that the four of us can continue to heal together and also pave the way to help others who get sick after us. We hope to help others navigate the failures of the health care systems globally, all the while prioritizing mental health during these extremely unprecedented, scary times.
http://www.missingwitches.com/category/episodes/