Cutting through the silencing of self-injury, trauma & injustice
A survivor-led PhD project
[ peer support + co-created art + collective voice ]
Every part of you is welcome here
Welcome to the Slice/Silence project.
I’m Indigo Daya, an artist, activist and peer supporter. I’m also a survivor of child abuse & psychiatric violence, and sometimes I use self-injury.
Slice/Silence is my PhD project about self-injury, and the silencing, trauma and injustice that often hides behind our scars.
It’s an offering to our mad/survivor community, rooted in the collective history of the psychiatric survivor movement, mad studies and abolition. Slice/Silence isn’t a ‘mental health’ project, it’s an intentional, mad alternative. It’s political, creative and collective. It’s about justice and emancipation.
Slice/Silence happens in creative, interactive ‘installations’ in the community made of lots and lots of art-cushions, and groups where we explore self-injury together.
It’s a space where we are fully welcome (scars and all), free from the judgement, neglect and violence of health services, where we can unhide, speak and be really heard, offer mutual support, make meaning together, be mad and creative in how we express ourselves, and lift up our collective voices to the world.
Whether you come to a Slice/Silence space, or just visit this website, I hope you find something of value.
Slice/Silence Short Film
SLICE/SILENCE IS SURVIVOR-LED
I make cushions, each with a story of trauma, injustice and self-injury. Survivors are welcomed to the space where we can sit with the cushions, hold them, injure them, stitch them, bandage them, destroy them, tattoo them. Sometimes I hold witnessing spaces, inviting the community to hear what we’ve said in the cushions, and offer back messages of solidarity.
UNHIDING TOGETHER
You don’t have to hide your story or your scars at Slice/Silence. Every part of you is welcome.
The cushions are becoming layered with the stories of many survivors, so we take time to witness and hear other silenced stories from our community. As we make and unmake together, we explore the experience of self-injury. We are free to talk about all the things that are normally silenced, judged or unwelcome.
PILOT PROJECTS
Slice/Silence launched as a two-day interactive arts project at The Big Anxiety Festival Forum in 2022. It was a moving two days, with big stories shared, many of which had not been spoken before. It was piloted again in Sydney in March and October 2023.
Together, we showed that alternative spaces are possible, where we can let go of oppressive mental health practices that focus on risk, pathologising and coercion rather than compassion, creativity and social justice. We survivors can create our own spaces of emancipation, for and with each other.
AND NOW IT’S A RESEARCH PROJECT
Slice/Silence is now the basis of my PhD project at the University of NSW. I’ll continue developing Slice/Silence with survivors during 2023 – 2025. My long-term hope is to be able to offer an ongoing, alternative peer space in the community.
- Check out the news and events page for more info about past and upcoming events
- Explore the cushions
- Read some ideas about self-injury that are grounded in survivor experiences (not psychiatric pathologising)
Messages from the ORIGINAL Slice/Silence installation 2022
This arts project is supported by The Big Anxiety Festival.
The Big Anxiety focuses on lived experiences of mental health, trauma and suicidality, and explores the diverse ways in which art and design collaborations can provide valuable psychosocial support, while reframing experiences of trauma and distress in ways that normalise rather than pathologise.
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land on which I live, work and create. I recognise their continued connection to the land and waters, and acknowledge that they never ceded sovereignty. I pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging and I acknowledge the stolen generations and the historical and ongoing impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.