Essential Counter Histories
What are counter histories? Like counter discourses, they do more than just 'counter' or oppose or contradict a dominant discourse or history; that is, they're not just a derivative reaction or refusal. They're not an optional add-on you 'should' include for diversity because they can't be assimilated or fit into the dominant framing. THat's why they're 'essential', not 'optional' or 'additional'.
Counter histories are discourses or narratives told from the distinct, autonomous position, experiences, worldviews, self-definition, and ways of knowing and being of one group who also happen to be marginalized by a dominant group. This 'view from below' sees what isn't visible or even thinkable from above: it makes all the silences and contradictions of the dominant narrative fall apart. For example, what contradictions in Canada's sesquicentennial celebrations were opened up by #Unsettle150 movements? See the photo of Wahsay Pyawasit below from 2017:
