A brief story…

In 2020, just as Covid 19 came into the world and revealed the structural inequities we all live in - patterns and habits that disproportionately and negatively impact Indigenous and Black people, people of colour, women, gender-diverse and neuro-diverse people, and people with disabilities, I was asked by Catherine Fitzmaurice to join the Advisory Group of the Fitzmaurice Institute (FIAG)• as the interim Social Justice Director; while Michael Morgan, who normally holds this position, took some time off to work on Catherine’s book. 

His are big shoes to fill and I felt wholly inadequate to the task. But I said yes, and the task that was immediately set in front of me was to organize what is commonly called in North America, an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) consultation for the FIAG.

On Catherine’s recommendation, I reached out to lawyer, writer and activist Eric Greene and organized two consultation sessions on Zoom between November 2020 and February 2021. Through Eric’s deep listening and gentle guidance, these sessions allowed us, the FIAG, to reflect on the values that were already at play in the work of being a Fitzmaurice Voicework® (FV) teacher, and to articulate them explicitly in these Eight Values. 

My role in the development of these Eight Values has been to facilitate the conversations that led to them and that have subsequently arisen from them. While I have typed out the words, the words themselves have come out of a collective undertaking led by the FIAG in consultation with the larger community of TREMS through the Social Justice Committee**. The Eight Values represent what we stand for, and what we can count on as we move through the world as teachers and practitioners of Fitzmaurice Voicework®.

I think of myself as currently the lead caretaker of the Eight Values. My hope is that as more conversations continue to emerge throughout the communities of teachers and practitioners of FV around these Eight Values, this caretaker role will be shared by all who practice FV. 

• Lee Su-Feh 

*The FIAG is a group of TREMs who meet regularly on a voluntary basis to offer advice to the leadership of the institute and to organize programming that helps the institute achieve its mandate of supporting the research and development of the vocal arts. 

**The Social Justice Committee is a loose group of Trems who are interested in how social justice concerns intersect with Fitzmaurice Voicework®. Anyone can join this committee. Please send a message of interest to Su-Feh at leesufeh@gmail.com. You will be put on an email list and invited to meetings and conversations as they emerge.

Fitzmaurice Institute 8 Values

• We encourage and engage individuals of any age, gender, race, ethnicity, national and language identity, religious belief, physical appearance, ability, sexual orientation, caste and class, to have integrated experiences of self in breath, body and voice.

• We center one’s body as the site of understanding, integration, and expression of our work.

• We value humility, curiosity, and deep listening in the way we communicate.

• We value individual autonomy, agency and consent.

• We aspire to leadership and teaching that is collaborative and relational.

• We believe in the importance of holding complexity.
  For example:
  Experiencing one’s own discomfort and pleasure as tools for learning
  Being aware of oneself while being aware of others 
  Risking fullness of expression while respecting boundaries

• We commit to questioning worldwide systems of power and oppression, so as not to replicate them in our work.

• We believe in the liberatory potential of the work.

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