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Performance and Niyat
In Islam we consider niyat, intention, in all acts. I’ve heard Wurundjeri elders refer to womenjeka also as an expression of intention. What is the intent of these performances? It seems that public health is a measure that requires a distancing that is indeed not merely physical, but social. Western science requires data, costume, and gestures to make us feel safe. But this pandemic doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and so neither can those intentions. Performativity has material consequences.
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