HELLO, I’M KāVYA : काव्या

Naming a child in India is a beautiful tradition, rich in ritual, thoughtfulness and care. It wasn’t until I was pregnant and conjuring baby names, that I truly appreciated the labor of love behind choosing a name.

I found myself reflecting on my journey and purpose, and noticed a common thread: a maternal lineage of healers connecting the women in my family across generations. This lineage was embodied by my amazing mother, who brought me into the world, and raised me in a home filled with love, kindness, and unconditional generosity - despite being an immigrant single mother in a foreign country. By naming me, she encoded and instilled values that continue to guide me to this day.

Kāvya // काव्या is Sanskrit for ‘episode in a great poem’. Arpitha // अर्पिथा is Sanskrit for ‘sacred offering’.

काव्या अर्पिथा // My short time here on earth is a gift, an offering in service of a greater good, life’s great poem.

Gratitude

I have lived on and benefit from the ancestral lands and waters of Indigenous communities, lands that hold the memory of millions of enslaved people, and lands that have been shared with many beings with whom we have been in relationship over generations.

My access to these lands, which have nurtured and sustained me, is possible due to the stewardship of the many Indigenous communities and teachers (people and more than people) who came before me.

For centuries, they have modeled how to treat land as kin - caring for, defending, and living in harmony with it - amid ongoing violence, cultural genocide, and forced assimilation.

As an uninvited, displaced, and racialized settler carrying the trauma of colonialism in my ancestry, I commit my time, energy, and heart to unlearning and confronting practices that perpetuate oppression and harm, amplifying historically marginalized voices, supporting their rights and honoring their sovereignty through action.

Journey

With the privilege of lifelong access to learning and extensive travel, I've gained knowledge, experiences, and the capacity to access and navigate different spaces where I am given a platform to share my perspectives. My intersecting identities, along with layers of privilege, and marginalization, shape my practice in three ways:

As a social impact designer, facilitator, celebrant, and coach, I design and facilitate meaningful and intentional experiences for organizations, movements and people as they move through change and transition. Whether shaping strategies or alchemizing rituals to celebrate special occasions, my work is rooted in joy, social justice, love and collective liberation. Peek at what I’ve been up to here.
As a creative alchemist, I steward Decolonizing Design, a free community of practice for designers and change-makers interested in sharing knowledge, lineage and different ways of knowing and being while (un)learning, experimenting with, and co-creating tools and methodologies to decolonize our practices.
As a mother, I try to raise my child with intention and integrity. It’s a continuous journey of recognizing patterns of inter-generational trauma, unlearning internalized oppression and seeking ways to practice parenting with love from a place of joy, liberation and social justice (while re-parenting my inner child).

These practices dance and intertwine with each other, as I seek to bring my personal values and actions into alignment. It’s a work in progress. I live life in the squiggle, and I love it.

If any of this resonates, I would love to hear from you. Let’s talk!

xo Kāvya