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Reckoning with our Role as Immigrants to Stolen Land
Abstract
This paper articulates a gap in current scholarship by looking at the relationship of immigrants to the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples they now live on. An overview of overlapping fields reveals that scholars are actively engaged in the vital work of documenting the historical relationship between foreign settlers and indigenous peoples, as well as the ongoing violence indigenous peoples continue to face in the US. In addition, much has been written about the struggles of immigrants facing various forms of discrimination as they settle in the US. There is also work on shared solidarity between Black and Indigenous historical justice movements and Palestinian resistance movements. Additionally, however, if scholars are to take seriously the process of decolonization, the role immigrants play and have played in relation to the land they live on must be part of this conversation. What does it mean for an immigrant to live ethically on this land? What kinds of solidarity movements currently exist or should exist among indigenous and immigrant peoples? How do immigrants understand their roles as they build lives on land that is itself stolen from its traditional caretakers?  This paper presents an approach to building a digital space for a reading group composed of academics and non-academics who come together as a group of immigrants focused on their relationship to the histories and the lands they build their livelihoods on. Using this reading group as a starting point, other initiatives are also considered including educational initiatives for immigrants on the violent histories of the US, decolonial projects carried out by immigrant coalitions/groups, and speculative and futurist imaginings of solidarity and coalition among immigrant and Indigenous groups.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
None