ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses embodied knowledge in the context of capoeira training at the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. Through an enactive understanding of a mindful body, and the singularity of body and self, I attempt to decolonise Western epistemology in which the body has little value unless it is a body in pain. I propose that through our presence as bodies in movement, we can make participatory research embodied. Movement work is not automatically ethical, but we can think about the ethics of research with movement. In the chapter, I attend to children’s embodied knowledge through three awareness exercises, and propose that capoeira training provided by Capoeira al-Shahabi has offered young Syrians possibilities to reconnect with their bodies and their embodied selves in movement. The challenge with external projects brought into the camp, such as this, is their discontinuity. The sense of community that was built during capoeira class can be ruptured, resulting in yet another loss.
