Olives and Porridge

May 8, 2024

Cara Conroy-Lau, a global border-crossing practitioner of Chinese medicine and Buddhism, shares wisdom on identity, cultural heritage, and healing. Topics include reconnecting with maternal lineage, overcoming racism, and exploring intersecting identities. The conversation also touches on Chinese culinary traditions, challenging dating stereotypes, and biases in healthcare. Reflecting on emotions, biases, and the power of Yin in healing traditions.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

Embracing and Examining Intersecting Identities

02:48 • 13min

Exploring Chinese Heritage and Culinary Traditions

16:12 • 21min

Challenging Dating Stereotypes and Racial Biases

37:25 • 4min

Exploring the Influence of Emotions and Biases on Patient Care

41:27 • 3min

Reflections on Interactions and Representation in Healthcare

44:00 • 6min

Reflections on The Power of Yin and Asian Healing Traditions

49:51 • 5min

In today’s episode on “Olives and Porridge,” Leo Lok and I are talking to Cara Conroy-Lau. Cara is a beautiful global border-crossing practitioner of Chinese medicine and Buddhism who has ended up in Canada at the Clear Sky Meditation Centre in Cranbrook, after growing up in Singapore, New Zealand, and Japan. I loved our conversation for how it revealed Cara’s courage and humility and dedication to her healing work, both within herself and in her community and family.

Here are some of the questions that Cara shared some pearls of wisdom about, which I believe are relevant not just to those of our listeners who happen to be female, of Asian descent, or medical practitioners: How do we tease apart the individual strands that made us who we are today, or in other words recover the precious ingredients that went into the melting pot before modern life took the stick blender to it? How do we heal the cultural ruptures and broken transmissions to link us back to our maternal lineages and recover what she calls “knowledge that is in our bones”? How do we overcome decades of internalized racism and attempted assimilation to the dominant White culture, to share something as simple as hot water and goji berries on a first date with a fellow Asian woman? Inspired by Cara’s life history, our conversation ranged across multiple fertile intersecting identities, between being White and non-White, colonizer and colonized, female and non-female, straight and queer, Chinese and non-Chinese. When I asked her at the very end to reflect on the influence of her maternal Asian heritage on her current practice of Chinese medicine, her answer was as simple and profound and powerful as her healing work, from what I can tell. To find out what her answer was and what all this has to do with olives and porridge, you’ll have to listen to the podcast!

Additional Information

Clear Sky Meditation Center - A Space For Inner & Outer Growth
Cara Conroy-Lau's website
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Happy Goat Productions (Dr. Wilms' website)
Leo Lok's courses - All Courses - Voices of Our Medical Ancestors