IPHU Short Course on “Coloniality and the Struggle for Health”

Overview

Applications are now open for the upcoming International People’s Health University (IPHU) short course on “Coloniality and the Struggle for Health”, to be held from 5–11 October 2025 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), Central Australia.

Unique learning opportunity: Coloniality and the Struggle for Health

Applications are invited to participate in the forthcoming International People’s Health University (IPHU) short course on “Coloniality and the Struggle for Health”. The course from 5th -11th, October 2025 in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in Central Australia is sponsored by People’s Health Movement (PHM) and the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress. The IPHU will be followed by a one day regional meeting in hybrid format on 12th October ’25 (Sunday). 

The IPHU will explore the barriers to good health and to decent healthcare in the context of coloniality and imperialism. The history of settler colonialism in Australia, its impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and their resistance and resilience will be reviewed alongside the histories, impacts and resistances to extractive colonialism in East Asia and the Pacific. 

The institutional structures of the colonising powers have been replaced but the poison of colonialism – the coloniality of disregard, othering, dehumanising – continues to circulate, sustained by the economic relations of capitalism and imperialism.  

We shall reflect on our challenges and experiences and forge new stories about our commitment to Health for All: No to denialism, defeatism and despair!

Humanity faces a global polycrisis of conflict, global warming, healthcare denied, deepening inequality, unfair trade, and the Sixth Extinction.

The polycrisis is manifest differently in our different communities: variously hunger, housing, conflict, unemployment, environmental degradation, drought, and despair but the same big picture structures are driving these different impacts.

• Capitalism demands growth in production, consumption and accumulation but disregards justice and ecological sustainability;
• Imperialism deploys unequal power to impose unequal exchange; 
• Cutures of greed and ‘othering’ oppose cultures of solidarity and inclusion; and 
• Capitalism aligns with patriarchy and racism to divide and conquer.

We shall forge new stories, linking grass roots action and global impact; confronting local needs in ways which also challenge the large scale structures! 

The International People’s Health University (IPHU) is PHM’s main capacity-building program. Coloniality and the Struggle for Health will be organised around narratives of struggle, from the challenges we face in our local organisations to the regional and global challenges we face as the People’s Health Movement.

Resource people will include Pat Anderson, Tamara MacKean, David Legge, Fran Baum, Delen de la Paz, Connie Marguerite Musolino, Paul Laris, Jamie Dasmariñas, and more. 

Course outline here

Application form here

Course announcement (downloadable PDF) for disseminating this opportunity. 

Applications close on 1st July 2025. For further queries related to IPHU please contact deepika@phmovement.org or dlegge@phmovement.org. 

In assessing applications preference will be given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and to activists from PHM’s East Asia and Pacific region (which includes Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, China, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia).   

Please share widely this course announcement (this page by social media or as PDF via email). 

The IPHU will be followed by one day Regional Meeting (in hybrid format) on Sunday, 12th October ’25. 

Official Announcement: PHM