MISSION

Through Afro-Indigenous centered swim and water based workshops, Oshun Swim School offers BIPOC womxn and non-binary people a safer space to explore our relationship with water and grow into embodied, joyful swimmers. We support students to gain swim skills, and also to heal personal and generational water trauma, build community, and practice embodied mindfulness.  
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This work is a response to the call for environmental justice for frontline communities who have been historically excluded from swim environments, yet who bear the brunt of the climate crisis, and for whom swim skills are most essential.  

VISION 

Oshun is the Orisha (West African Yoruba deity) of rivers and lakes.  She represents pleasure, healing, and all of the things that make life worth living.  Despite personal, generational, and historic traumas, we envision marginalized communities having an Oshun infused experience in water.  ​

ESTUARY
Just as all rivers eventually lead to the ocean
We have always brought ourselves you, our beloved water
To celebrate
To mourn
To heal
To become new
This is our birthright
 It is inevitable 

We with rivers flowing through our bodies
And down our cheeks
And from our breasts
We with creation ebbing and flowing at our core
Until it rushes forward, life carried in its wake
And we whose womanhood expands beyond breast, and womb, and birth
We who, like you beloved, are also moved by the silent embrace of the moon
We who baptize ourselves
Our ancestors
Our children
With our tears of pain
And tears of joy 
We daughters of Oshun and Yemaya
Beauty and joy embodied
And all of the things that make life worth living

We whose oceans, and rivers, and lakes
Have been dammed, and polluted, and buried 
And disrespected
And redirected
And scorned
We whose bodies, and skin, and hair
Deemed unfit, wrong, shameful
Until bathing suit and wet hair
Turn tar and feather

We who have had our beloved water 
Used against us as weapon
Fire hose snake strike us down
Poison pipes taint our blood
​We left pleading for help on rooftop islands
And without ancestors knowledge to keep us afloat
We who drown in our beloved
We who have been stolen across waters
And tossed shackled into waters
We whose mere presence in water
Has incited froth mouthed hysteria and 
Acid tossed from poolside
​No wonder we clutch our children close
And forbid them from entering 
​We who have had our beloved water torn from us
And kept from us until
​Our beloved turned stranger
No wonder our respect turned fear
​
Yet we, like you beloved, have also
rained down
And overflowed
And purified and regenerated 
And reincarnated as
Wild river, gentle snow, salty tear,
Deep ocean 
Peaceful lake, city pool oasis
We, like you, have renewed ourselves
Over, and over, and over
Becoming clear
And gentle
And powerful
Over, and over, and over
Our path may meander 
It does take time to carve through mountains
Yet our beloved calls for us 
​We hear you
We are on our way
And our arrival is inevitable 

Just as all rivers eventually lead to the ocean
We have always brought ourselves to you, our beloved water
To celebrate
To mourn
To heal
To become new
This is our birthright
And we are claiming it

​-Chandrika Francis

​(*Note: This is written from my experience as a cis-gendered womxn.  Not all womxn identify with breasts/wombs/birth and I want to hold trans and non-binary folks as an integral part of this community. )

Founder and Facilitator, Chandrika Francis (she/her/they/them)

Chandrika is dedicated to supporting people of color to have a relationship to the earth grounded in remembrance, safety, connection, healing, and liberation!  In 2018, she founded Oshun Swim School. Through Afro-Indigenous centered swim and water based workshops, Oshun Swim School offers BIPOC womxn and non-binary people a safer space to explore our relationship with water and grow into embodied, joyful swimmers. OSS supports students to gain swim skills, and also to heal personal and generational water trauma, build community, and practice embodiment.  Before 2018, Chandrika supported POC to reconnect with the earth for seven years in the form of environmental education, backpacking trips, camping trips, conservation work, classroom teaching, and youth development. She has a Masters in Education through the Islandwood Program at the University of Washington, with a focus in decolonizing environmental education.  She is a bi-coastal baby at heart, having spent her life between Oakland, Seattle, and the east coast, and is excited to bring her work to the lands she loves!

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oshunswimschool@gmail.com
(504) 930-8190