Connecting Beth Nahrain to Turtle Island: A Conversation on Indigeneity, Colonialism, and

In this presentation, Dr. Mariam Georgis will explore the meaning and workings of colonialism and how it connects Indigenous peoples globally. She will explore how anticolonial struggles connect Assyrians in the homeland to Assyrians in the Diaspora, and to First Nations in the Americas. What does our resistance look like? What do we have in common with decolonial struggles and movements for social justice and transformation such as Land Back, Idle No More, Standing Rock, Black Lives Matter, Sanctuary City, LGBTQ2S+ and others? How can we think about our complicity in the settler-colonial projects of the Americas, given our context as Indigenous peoples who have been dispossessed from our native homeland through colonialism and have arrived to settle and benefit from stolen Indigenous land? In thinking about Assyrians’ connections with these movements and groups, she will explore the meaning of solidarity. What does solidarity look like? How can we show up for others and be allies in their struggles? She will conclude the talk with an exploration of how solidarity defines and grounds us in our own Assyrian identity, both in the homeland and in the Diaspora.