Kinship, resistance, and the futures we make: a conversation with Pamela Block

Abstract

This conversation brings together critical reflections on disability, care, kinship, and intersectionality through a transnational lens, featuring Pamela Block and interlocutors Lilian Magalhães and Sandra Galheigo. Drawing from both personal and academic experiences, Pamela Block discusses how family structures, institutional expectations, and systemic inequities shape the lives of disabled individuals and their siblings and explores how they co-create futures in contexts often marked by exclusion. The dialogue also addresses the uneven distribution of care responsibilities, particularly in Canada and Brazil, highlighting the ways in which race, class, gender, and immigration status intersect with disability. Attention is given to the social construction of "non-disabled" siblings as default caregivers and the emotional and structural consequences this carries. As Lilian and Sandra draw parallels with Brazilian realities, the conversation underscores the global relevance of these issues while emphasizing the need to resist reductive approaches—whether based solely on class or medical categories. This exchange invites readers to think critically about care, agency, and justice in everyday life, and contributes meaningfully to the broader project of decolonizing disability studies and occupational therapy.