Who is Wellness For?

When Fariha Róisín was growing up in Australia, she struggled to fit in. As a Bangladeshi Muslim, she tried to assimilate as best she could, which ultimately meant distancing herself from her South Asian heritage and identity. Years later, now living in the United States, she realised that the customs and practices that had once made her different were now being made palatable for mass consumption. " Trends" like turmeric, ghee, ashwagandha, and meditation - part of the everyday fabric of her culture - were now being sold at a premium, stripped of their meaning, by white people to white people. In Who is Wellness For? Róisín, an acclaimed writer and poet, explores the way in which the wellness industry has appropriated and commodified global healing traditions, discarding context, credit, and meaning along the way. Wellness culture, she suggests, has become a luxury good, one built on the wisdom of Black, brown, and Indigenous people; and yet one that also excludes these very people from participation. In this deeply intimate and revelatory investigation of wellness, Fariha not only asks 'Who is wellness for?' but also carves a path towards a revolutionary self-care based future that is truly inclusionary for all.