HELLO, I’M KāVYA // काव्या

(she / her)

Social impact facilitator, designer and coach. Global nomad. Eternal immigrant. Indian by birth. Canadian by passport. Italian by love. Mamma. Woman of Color. Athlete. Cook. Artist. Community catalyst. Creative alchemist.

LINEAGE

Naming a child in India is a beautiful tradition - one that is undertaken with thoughtfulness, care and intention. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my own child, conjuring baby names, that I truly appreciated the labor of love and lineage behind choosing a name.

I found myself reflecting on my journey and purpose, and discovered 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 education and extensive travel, I've gained knowledge, experiences, and access not available to all. I have the privilege and capacity to 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 facilitator, designer and coach, I hold space for organizations, movements and people who seek to better align their values, aspirations and intentions (WHY) with their actions (HOW). The lens I bring to this work is deeply rooted in decolonization, de-centering and building power with communities that have been historically under-served and marginalized by mainstream systems. 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 joy, liberation and social justice in my parenting (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