Reclaiming knowledge to transform health systems.

Our Approach

We begin by recognising epistemicide, the systematic erasure and devaluation of indigenous and ancestral knowledge systems, as both a cause and consequence of global health inequities. To counter this, we engage in epistemic disobedience: reclaiming and mobilising our ways of knowing to transform how health is defined, researched, and delivered.

Through a combination of community-led research and education, co-designed health programming and evaluation, and policy advocacy, we:

• Document and elevate subjugated knowledge and practices by using community-led methods to gather and share ways of knowing within communities.
• Build platforms for frontline communities to lead health interventions and shape narratives.
• Disrupt extractive and exclusionary global health models.
• Foster alliances across movements for health justice, decolonisation, and community sovereignty.

We believe that when frontline communities define what counts as valid knowledge, we unlock transformative pathways to health equity rooted in justice, dignity, and self-determination.

Examples in the UK

• Black and Afro-descendant populations: experience systemic disparities, including higher rates of maternal mortality, cardiovascular disease, prostate cancer, and COVID-19 deaths, rooted in legacies of medical racism and exclusion.
• Refugees and Asylum Seekers: face high prevalence of mental health challenges shaped by trauma, displacement, and barriers to primary care. Strong oral traditions and cultural healing histories are often undervalued or ignored.
• LGBTQI+ communities: confront disproportionate health risks, including later diagnoses, higher rates of infectious disease, and higher rates of suicidality, alongside historical pathologisation and exclusion from medical curricula.