Dona Ivone Lara and occupational therapy: The becoming-black of the profession's history

Abstract

This essay presents an analysis of the contributions of black memories within Occupational Therapy field - highlighting the story of Yvonne Lara. Yvonne Lara was a nurse, social worker and specialist in Occupational Therapy. From the 1940s, her practices aimed to care for people with mental disorders using music as a therapeutic activity and working in cooperation with families and communities in her efforts to deinstitutionalize individuals. The article discusses the innovation of these care practices bearing in mind the hegemony of the organicist current and the asylum-based model that marked psychiatry at that time. It is argued that the salvaging of Yvonne's history is central to the historical reconstruction of the profession, turning from the racist epistemicide against the contributions of the knowledge of black people. Herein, we seek to give visibility to individuals who were marginalized by official narratives and to build an epistemic diversity in the field, which we denominate the becoming-black of Occupational Therapy.