2024 Festival:
October 21–27

73. On Grief and Trauma: Personal and Global

73. On Grief and Trauma: Personal and Global

After the horrors of the October 7th terror attack in Israel and the ongoing atrocities perpetrated in Israel’s war in Gaza, billions of us are trying to process: process the brutality of these acts, process seeing so much trauma, process what it means to seek justice on an international stage. But what does that processing entail? And how do we begin such processing in both private and community spheres? Dr. Gabor Maté is a retired physician, Holocaust survivor, and world-renowned trauma expert. Raja G. Khouri is a community organizer, human rights advocate, and co-author of The Wall Between: What Jews and Palestinians Don’t Want to Know about Each Other. Together, in conversation with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, they discuss the need for a new public language to talk about the profound grief of the last 12 months—and beyond—and why this grief can only be overcome in community. Moderated by Elamin Abdelmahmoud.

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Event Participants:

Elamin Abdelmahmoud

Elamin Abdelmahmoud

ELAMIN ABDELMAHMOUD’s work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Rolling Stone, and others. He is the author of the number one national bestseller Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces. He was the 2023 Guest Curator for the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Raja G. Khouri

Raja G. Khouri

RAJA G. KHOURI is CEO of Khouri Conversations, a human rights and inclusion consultant, the founding president of the Canadian Arab Institute, board member at Project Rozana (Canada), and a former 10-year commissioner with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He is Canada Committee member of Human Rights Watch, and co-founder of the Canadian Arab/Jewish Leadership Dialogue Group.

Gabor Maté

Gabor Maté

DR. GABOR MATÉ is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics, such as addiction, stress, and childhood development. Dr. Maté has written several bestselling books, including the New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal, the award-winning In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with AddictionWhen the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress; and Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder. He is also the co-author of Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers. His works have been published internationally in more than thirty languages.