Dr Catherine Ali honoured with Medal for the Development of Women: A symbol of her life’s work

SOCIAL ACTIVIST Dr Catherine Ali, 71, stood among the nation’s most celebrated citizens on Republic Day as she received the Medal for the Development of Women (Silver). The award recognised her decades of service in the spheres of gender, social justice and development in Trinidad and Tobago.

She confessed she only learned about the honour two or three days beforehand. The news left her dizzy with emotion.

“When people in authority say ‘Thank you’ for your contribution to the country, it’s very meaningful. It's wonderful to be recognised in such a prestigious way. It motivates you to do more. And for me, it means completing a cycle of my life.”

Grateful and grounded, Ali described the award as a symbol of her life’s work.

Ali’s research and work spanned decades. She was the director of the government Community Mediation Centre in Cunupia from 2000-2003, and co-founded the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Alternatives To Custody where she worked tirelessly from 1993-2000 to push the boundaries of how the nation viewed crime and punishment.

Her NGO lobbied for mediation and community service legislation, as well as restorative justice policies. Their efforts paid off.

“We got the first mediation legislation, the legislation for community service, and we got the policy for restorative justice and for the transformation of the penal system. So those were important pieces of work that were done that built the foundation for other work in that area.

“Following that there was a task force that looked into the transformation of prisons and the penal system and bringing in restorative justice, and that might be useful again now, as they're talking about decommissioning the prison in Port of Spain.”

The report from that task force contained over 100 recommendations, and while many had been implemented, Ali believed the government would return to the report to see what else would be useful.

Ali’s activism often focussed on women’s issues. Ali was also deeply involved in women’s projects, including women’s rights, women in prison, women in traumatic conflict, women in peace-building, women in politics and women in agriculture.

She led the Palmasola Women’s Association which cultivated moringa from seed to product, including powders, tea bags and capsules.

Always, she wove mediation into these projects, teaching women not only how to grow crops but how to navigate disputes, stand firm and claim space in society.

“Conflict is part of life and we all have to negotiate, so it’s good to have some skills.”

For the past decade, she has run Eriu, a centre for pain relief that uses light, sound, vibration, oxygen and other advanced therapies to treat injuries and ease suffering. The idea took root at home when her husband developed severe nerve pain in his feet due to diabetes. Heavy pain medication offered no relief, so the couple began searching for something new.

“We came up with photobiomodulation, that's using red light and infrared light to increase the energy of the mitochondria so that they recharge and activate the cells. So I went and did training in that and we got some equipment, and it saved his feet.”

It also found the therapies useful in mediation.

“I found that with traumatic conflict, people are not able to listen. The pain is too loud. It takes over all of their awareness. They can't hear, and if they can't hear, they can't communicate and so it was practically impossible to mediate. So I was looking for a way to reduce pain so that people would be able to listen and respond and communicate in order to do conflict resolution.”

Roots in Ireland, blooms in Trinidad

Ali’s story began far from TT’s shores.

Born in Ireland, she pursued a bachelors in education at the University of Southampton in England. There she met a Trinidadian student, Kazim Ali, who would become her husband. She graduated in 1977.

She wanted to be a part of how people could expand their perspectives and empower themselves with knowledge and skill, and how education changed their lives. She taught in England for about two years, during which time the couple married, and moved to TT in 1979.

“It was a big challenge initially but I think, from the beginning, I was able to see the positive strength of the culture as well as the challenges. And I think I was lucky I was able to study and learn more about how the culture works, so that you can work with it and integrate.”

She fell in love with her new home – the heat, the waters, the endless variety of fruit and vegetables, the rhythms of music, cultural expressions and religion.

She soon launched the La Brea Social Action Group, tackling issues affecting both women and men. Her curiosity about the society she was now part of deepened, leading her study it.

“That took me into wanting to understand more about society. So I did some courses on women's studies at the Institute of Gender and Development at UWI. From there I went to working with Alternatives To Custody, and they were looking at how you could make life safer for women.

“One of the things they found was that male offenders who are sent to prison come out worse, and that increases crime, and that ideally, prison should be a last resort instead of a first resort. And that was very difficult for people to understand 35 years ago, as they wanted to lock people up and throw away the key.”

She said if society wanted to keep people out of prison they had to find ways to solve problems, and mediation was a good way to do that.

NGO work, she said, was voluntary and flexible, which made it easier to balance family, her studies and activism.

She is a mother of four and grandmother of seven. Her family brought both joy and heartbreak. One daughter lives in Trinidad, while the other two made their lives in London and Ireland. Her only son was one of the four divers who perished in the tragic Paria accident.

She admits she misses her daughters abroad but is glad they had found fulfilling paths. With her daughter in Ireland, she said she was especially happy to discover “more common ground” now.

“You do NGO work on your own time, whenever you have the time and the energy to fit it in. And there are other people who feel strongly about the same causes, and they put in their time and energy, and together, you get it done.”

Her organisations did a lot of public awareness and public education to gain support for their work, including conferences, seminars and media appearances. Ali said she was grateful she had the opportunity to do what she wanted to and give it her best.

Ali’s academic journey was just as rich as her activism.

She did several courses to teach mediation and conflict resolution, and taught mediation studies at UWI from 2006-2008 and again in 2011. In 2009 she completed an MPhil on what constitutes empowerment in negotiation and mediation, and a PhD in navigating empowerment in mediation and restorative justice in Trinidad in 2013 at UWI.

Signs of the times

Ali’s mind stretched beyond mediation and activism into the mysteries of global change. She believed the world was undergoing a profound spiritual and energetic transition, and while religion was losing ground in the world, spirituality was gaining ground.

“We've come to the end of a number of cycles, and people who know more about these things say that we're entering an age where there's going to be more evolution, more growth, more development, both in the land and in people themselves. So it's a very interesting time.

“We seem to have come to a time where the old order is ending, and a new order that has to do with the breaking down of old structures and the setting up of new energies, new approaches to justice and new perspectives, and to advancing unity and consciousness. That kind of thing.”

She pointed to the weakening grip of global powers saying the US, the EU and NATO was under pressure and collapsing. International corporations, religions, monarchies and governments were struggling with social investment, but that would make room for something new to come.

She linked this upheaval to the earth itself. Energy lines, she said, were expanding and intensifying, triggering more earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and powerful solar flares.

In Hindu philosophy, she noted, this period marks the end of Kali Yuga, an age defined by conflict, decadence and moral decline. What comes next, she believed, would be an age of harmony, peace and cooperation.

Meanwhile, Ali planned to continue developing courses on the global transition and to expand her NGO work.

Reflecting on her journey, she said it had been amazing, as a researcher and activist, to make life better for people through her work.