In choosing quotes to collect and represent my experience in this course, I first looked back into my notebook where I noted particular readings and passages that I felt to be foundational in my understanding of anticolonial, postcolonial, and decolonial discourse. I began the collection with a quote from Remedios because it has been most fresh in my mind, and I felt like it set the tone for what was to come. Aurora Levins Morales writes a perspective that has been and is systematically erased from history, and digs deep to reveal those that are overlooked. The specific quote says that the reader is about to embark on a journey of two intertwining stories, which is sorta how I view my education throughout this class. I came in with what I was taught, although I would not say there is only my story and the “other” story, but I think it illuminates nicely what follows. Next I kind of just arranged the rest of my photos in a way that looked nice and made sense to me after designing them, and then from there I re-read them chronologically to sift and see if any positions should shift. The five quotes which follow suite have a certain energy of revealing and coming to terms with oneself which I feel is necessary, at least for myself. In this process I was able to discover things about myself, understand the implications of my actions or lack thereof, gain a more complex understanding of gender and race, and just how deep colonial roots grow. These quotes/authors also enable one to again understand the discourses (in my opinion) in a deeper way I feel, and characterize colonialism for what it is, does, and continues to do. The last four of the collection to me represented a shift in tone for this piece, as it shifts to various experiences and perspectives. Tuck and Yang’s quote definitely feels like a call to action, but one could argue that these four are all a call of some sort, a call for us (me) to listen, observe, and hopefully aid in producing helpful, beneficial, liberatory, and resistant results. To me, the topics of colonialism are woven into feminism, as many issues that mainstream feminists seem to seek to eradicate have colonial ties, and not to mention the whole ‘no one is free until we are all free.’ It feels necessary, at least to me, to learn from and read these conversations, as they play a large part in liberatory justice.

Quotes as they appear:

1. Remedios, Aurora Levins Morales, xxiv
2. The Coloniality of Gender, María Lugones, 16
3. Spivak and Rivera Cusicanqui on the Dilemmas of Representation in Postcolonial and Decolonial Feminisms, Kiran Asher, 524
4. Heterosexualism and the Colonial : Modern Gender System, María Lugones, 202
5. Decolonizing-Trans-Imaginary-Intro-308-19-tbnyp0, Aizura et al, 317
6. Latin American Decolonial Studies- Feminist Issues, Sandra Harding, 628
7. Imaging Puerto Rican Natives, 1890-1920, Hilda Lloréns, 29
8. Decolonization-is-not-a-metaphor, Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang, 19
9. decolonizing-feminist-freedom, Allison Weir, 263
10. Beyond Nationalist and Colonialist Discourses-The Jaiba Politics of the Puerto Rican Ethno-Nation, Grosfogul et al, 15

In all honesty, I struggled a bit with the photo essay assignment, as I am not sure if sharing my ‘perspectives on decolonization’ from a settler body takes up space it shouldn’t occupy, but after Reading Allison Weir’s “Decolonizing Feminist Freedom: Indigenous Relationalities” I decided to try and collect photos that (hope to) illuminate the ways in which myself and others may view different ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies. In the chapter, Weir asks:

Can Western feminist theorists recognize the diverse knowledges of trees and even rocks?

She explains that these knowledges, specifically Indigenous knowledges, may often be regarded as whimsical or imaginative rather than knowledge that can be valued, in a sense, knowledge that is useful knowledge, and so on. Certain knowledges such as these do not necessarily have space to exist outside of the parameters of Indigenous knowledges, which may not be in issue, but from my understanding some may see these as knowledges rooted in history and truth, rather than fantasy. These knowledges can be a way of being and seeing in relation to land and the world, however Western feminist theorists are often taught to systematically disprove and disvalue, sometimes in manners that may seem subconscious. While reading this chapter, the idea for my photo essay came to mind: a series of the same photo with different layers. My idea was that as I increasingly added stickers to the image, the viewer would automatically know that it is essentially ‘fake,’ as many of us that grew up trained in digital spheres are taught to recognize counterfeited pictures. My question then is, can we view the images for what they are, what they consist of, what our eyes are actually seeing, suspending our ‘knowledge’ that the animals and added scenery are obviously fake. Can we train ourselves to see the last image without questioning the legitimacy?

In doing this project, I honestly was (and still am) worried that it may come across as reductive, or perhaps unclear. Of course this was not my conscious intent, but I am also aware intent ≠ impact.

Something I often grapple with from ‘inside’ the academia (as the picture is taken from within the walls of SUNY New Paltz’ library), are the elitist and systemically designed oppressive tactics which we are taught, in virtually every area of study, when conducting research. I guess I feel that one step in decolonizing knowledges/knowledge production is moving away from these standards within our research, only recognizing specific sources as legitimate and useful, which not only contributes to intense erasure but also blinds us to so many ideas and processes of thought.

I ask myself Weir’s question, whether I can recognize knowledges I have been historically taught to exclude and discount, beyond just saying “yes,” but actually being with and listening to varying knowledges. Can I live with and in stronger relation to the stolen land, belonging to the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape, I call home? In exploring this myself, I see a lot of work and listening I must practice in moving forward, and that is the most clear answer I can give.

*NOTE: I chose to use deer as the layered images because I often think of them as calm and gentle, which are qualities I strive to embody as I try to listen and learn. I feel like there is a lot I could unpack but I am out of my word limit sorry !!!

I found this piece, “Decolonizing API,” to be rather informative, just because there is a huge absence of Asian American feminisms in my own education to begin with, not to mention critiques of such feminisms. I feel like the conversations surrounding my WGSS major are often surrounding Black feminisms, womanisms, or “Women of Color” feminisms, but never really with the specificity this chapter seems to include. The distinction between Asian Americans, and then this constructed category of API was interesting, and on 314 when they discuss the erasure of indigeneity when categorizing Moana feminism within Asian American feminism. I of course had never thought of this and felt it opened my mind to a more realistic understanding of these histories that have been systematically erased and silenced. When Teves and Arvin begin discussing academia and curricula I also found it very informative and interesting, as the authors seem to communicate this separation of participating in both specific community spaces, and these academic spaces which are already contributing to erasure of those said communities. It is just interesting to think about these tensions, and other places they arise in various forms as well. I think the reading in general can be taken as a call to realize that decolonization takes many different forms and may not always be overt. I feel like all I can really say is that this essay honestly helped me learn a lot I feel, both about Asian American feminisms and decolonization in general.

OK, ok, okayyy! Today I am tasked with distinguishing four terms:

• colonial
• anticolonial
• decolonial
• postcolonial

For my own understanding, I find it easiest to define colonial and postcolonial together, colonialism as the enactment of oppression and exploitation of people, cultures, and lands, while postcolonialism is concerned with the ramifications, material, and psychological consequences of the colonial process. According to wikipedia, postcolonial often regards the legacy of colonialism, and in some senses may respond to this? At first when I hear the term postcolonial I think of something that does not really exist, because colonialism is still occurring today? But I am unsure if that is just not the point and I am confused.

Next on the list I place anticolonial, which I understand as a term that may mark intentional interventions and political choices to perhaps resist and combat colonialism and its legacy? I feel as though in my understanding of the term I would also say that anticolonial text and thought outlines colonial thinking and processes, and sort of theorizes from this point, but then I think of Maria Lugone’s Towards a Decolonial Feminism and I ask myself if that is sort of what she does with descriptions of the coloniality of gender and difference? So perhaps I am confused in my conceptualization of the term. Overall though I believe it to refer to struggling against colonial rule and thought, a colonized country or people fighting against colonial rule.

Lastly is decolonial, which in my notes I have written is towards a new perspective, perhaps after anticolonial and postcolonial, using these frameworks in understanding coloniality and cultivating new ways and ideas of being/going about things? Decolonial is the continued seeing through of colonial imposition?

In reading all of the material for the course I always feel like I can understand the terms in context, but defining them alone or in relation to another was definitely tricky. I’m looking forward to discussing this in class, as I am not completely confident with my answers lol. Thanks for reading!