Resisting and survivance despite genocide

Join us for an afternoon of solidarity and resistance. Dr Sara Motta, Dr Jumana Bayeh and Dr Hawzhin Azeez have joined together to create a series of dialogues, the first: “On resisting and survivance despite genocide”. 

What began as a webinar in 2024 will be brought in person to Muloobinba/newcastle. We will have the honour of hearing from all three activist scholars, as well as the opportunity to engage together in a Q&A session focusing on community resistance. 

Dr Motta, Dr Bayeh and Dr Azeez stand at the front lines in relation to their communities and kin and the struggle for freedom, sovereignty and survivance. 

Please join us. 

Tickets are FREE. 

Children of all ages are absolutely welcome/prioritised and will have safe spaces to play and/or engage with the material depending on their preferences. 

Donations will be graciously received at the door; we are raising funds for registered charities operating within Gaza, Palestine, and Sisters Inside (a dynamic organisation that supports criminalised women and girls, and their children, both inside and outside prison).

A light afternoon tea will be provided. 

ACCESSIBILITY: Accessible access with accessible amenities. Fully enclosed outdoor area with children’s play equipment. Quiet space available.

This event is held on unceded and sovereign land, Awabakal country. Newcastle Mums for Palestine acknowledge the traditional sovereign owners of this land and extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We acknowledge and strive to support Indigenous disruption of the colonial genocidal violence persisting in white supremacist systems from Palestine to so-called australia.

Bios

Dr. Hawzhin Azeez holds a PhD in political science and International Relations, from the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is the creator of The Middle Eastern Feminist and was formerly the Co-Director of The Kurdish Center for Studies (English branch). Previously she has taught at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), as well as being a visiting scholar at their CGDS (Center for Gender and Development). She has worked closely with refugees and IDPs in Rojava while a member of the Kobane Reconstruction Board after its liberation from ISIS. Her areas of expertise include gender dynamics, post-conflict reconstruction and nation-building, democratic confederalism, and Kurdish studies.

Jumana Bayeh is Associate Professor at Macquarie University, the President of the Australasian Association for Literature and Deputy Chair of Arab Theatre Studio. Her research sits at the intersection of postcolonial studies and Middle East studies, especially the Arab Middle East and its diaspora. Her main research interests include Arab diaspora literature and culture, and the history of colonialism in the Arab world.

Sara C. Motta is a proud Indigenous-Mestiza of Colombia Chibcha/Muisca, Eastern European Jewish and Celtic lineages living, loving, resisting and re-existiendo on the unceded lands of the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, NSW, so called Australia. She is mother, grandmother, curandera, popular educator and award-winning poet and political philosopher who is currently A/Professor in Politics at the University of Newcastle, NSW and incoming FTGS Section Chair for 2025. She is a prolific writer of texts as breath and survivance and has co-created numerous projects of decolonising feminist queering education as healing sovereignties in Abya Yala, UK and Australia, Find further details of her work at: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/p... and https://saracmotta.com &n... her if you resonate with refusal and joyous rebellion beyond enslavement and the containments of the (settler) colony and towards the mestizaje wilds at: sara.c.motta@newcastle.edu.au