Imagination for Liberation

Aya Clappis is an Afro-Indigenous truthteller, visual artist and DJ who currently resides on the unceded homelands of the Quw'utsun peoples. Aya’s ancestral lineages are of the Somalinimo and Nuu-chah-nulthath (mainly, Huu-ay-aht First Nations). Their work strives to center decolonization, collective liberation, and Indigenous sovereignty through graphic collage, poetry, and storytelling of Indigenous resistance, survivance, and love.

Artist Statement

This piece reflects on navigating colonial reality while embodying the endless possibilities of what can happen when we simply speak or dream the truth into being through praxis. Whether it is a personal, cultural, or even collective truth of our lineage - let it be known, let it live. It is a call to allow the dreamers to roam freely in their imagination and the dream world and a reminder that our ancestors smile when we do so. After all, we were all once simply an earthside prayer of our kin now in the spirit world. This poem asks us to honor our truths so our ancestors can find us through shared dreams in the present.

Reflection and Connection to "Imagination for Liberation"

It is connected to the theme of 'imagination for liberation' through both a practice of written reflection and truth-telling. The poem serves as a reminder that when we dream, go inward or spend countless hours daydreaming, we are also world-building. We are also honoring those who came before us. We also matter. We are precious, and these shared dreams and truths are precious. Our dreams and the truths we carry are interlinked. They are the catalysts for our work across political landscapes, in the community, and across our peer groups. They inform all that we are, and in the settler-colonial society we are forced to exist in- we must not forget their importance in shaping our consciousness, our future.