COLOURING RESISTANCE: A REFLECTION ON ART AND ACTIVISM (SUMMER 2017)
Binish Ahmed
PDF of this Piece // PDF of Issue 8 // Table of Contents
resistance to me
is glitter.
it’s sparkle and shine.
it’s happiness, it’s love,
in spite of all the hate,
the violence,
of suppression,
of oppression.
resistance is alchemy,
it is
making use of the fertile light of joy
to produce gold.
resistance is
making something from nothing,
it is planting seeds of intent to bloom in stinking dung,
it is converting shit
into beautifully scented, colourful, blossoming flowers,
it is noticing that the shit stinking
dung could be a fertilizer.
resistance is
not seeing mistakes as failures we cannot survive from,
it is seeing mistakes as openings for miracles,
as rich opportunities, possibilities,
for accountability, for taking responsibility,
for learning and teaching moments.
resistance feels joyful.
it is silver, gold, blue, red,
purple, green, and pink.
resistance is colours
getting to know one another holistically,
informed by a decolonial praxis,
moving beyond the boundaries of state
sanctioned curriculums and
corporate media strategies.
resistance is colours
bleeding into
each other,
adjusting for opacity,
layering one another,
allowing each other to shine,
complementing, contrasting,
not competing with or erasing each
other.
resistance is non-conforming,
complicating, but not confusing.
resistance is
blending powerfully,
it is birthing, creating new colours,
but also standing out
separately.
resistance looks like
a woman’s body
birthing a child
during a war, making
room for life
in a time of
looming death.
where time is treated as money, and your
“net-worth” is reduced to your “productivity,”
the supposed worth of your time,
resistance is pausing,
it is taking deep breaths,
it is slowing down, refusing
externally imposed pressures,
it is
noticing what the body
needs in this moment
to bloom,
to survive,
to thrive.
resistance
is undoing
undesired hegemonic layers of control,
dominance,
greed,
and hierarchy.
resistance is relations
that are shoulder to shoulder,
and not hierarchical.
it is ways of relating that are
simultaneously mindful
of unequal and deep wisdoms held
in unique ways
by conventional and unconventional
knowledge bearers.
resistance is colours
refusing disconnection from, and theft of our lands,
it is refusing access to our bodies, the land,
or revoking consent after giving
consent initially.
resistance is demanding readdress for wrongful
exploitations and violations.
it is colours
self-representing.
self-governing,
and self-determining.
resistance is colours
being radical
in seeking justice.
it is colours
collaborating, co-existing,
creating magic.
resistance is colours
being
alchemy.
resistance to me
is coloured bodies loving
all the parts of us
that no one
wants.
resistance to me
is a healing love,
it is relating to all the parts of me
and you in ways
that are not expected or anticipated
but willed anyway
by our bodies
who so choose, with queered
desires.
resistance is
glowing as if
we are
dancing in love,
it is being
a boundless love,
it is firing, tasting, and treasuring
radically restorative imaginaries.
resistance
is holding space
for my beautiful life
my body
and those bodies who
have been willed
not to survive or thrive.
resistance is
a critically conscious
angry body,
it is
a reflective longing.
it is
nurturing
a sustained critical awareness,
a practice of self-education,
a practice of radical self-preservation and self-love.
resistance is
striding with
a raw grounded strength, which
refuses the gaze of others,
it is a colourful resilience,
it is glowing
shamelessly, and
unapologetically.
resistance is
being here
right now,
it is
being
alive.
Binish Ahmed is an Indigenous (Asian) Kashmiri Muslim woman who works as a researcher, writer, educator, community connector, and artist. She is a Policy Studies PhD candidate at Ryerson University in Tkaranto. She currently lives on the territories of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Mississaugas, Huron-Wendat, and Petún First Nations, Turtle Island. You can follow her on Twitter @binishahmed