Land and Liberation Plenary Panel on Decolonizing Feminism to feature Bamby Salcedo, Kimberly Robertson, Connie Huynh

LOS ANGELES—Transnational and indigenous women will come together for “Whose Space: Decolonizing Feminism, Beyond Talk, Into Practice, to Liberation” at AF3IRM’s Land and Liberation Forum on Saturday, March 9th. This plenary panel, which begins at 12 noon, will feature activist Bamby Salcedo of the TransLatin@ Coalition, CSULA Professor Kimberly Robertson, and Connie Huynh, who is part of the AF3IRM National Executive Committee.  Panelists will engage in a discussion, moderated by AF3IRM National Communications Director Barbra Ramos and focused on the forum’s core themes, and they will offer up deeper liberatory visions for a feminist future.

Each of the panelists brings important perspectives from their communities and are fierce activists and advocates in their own right.

A nationally recognized Latina transgender activist, Bamby Salcedo is President of the TransLatin@ Coalition and her work covers the trans community and issues including migration, HIV, youth, LGBT, incarceration and Latin@ communities. Bamby “has birthed several organizations that created community where there was none, and [is an] advocate for the rights, dignity, and humanity for those who have been without a voice.”

Dr. Kimberly Robertson (Mvskoke) embodies many roles—artivist, scholar, teacher, and mother—and she is dedicated to using “Native feminist theories, practices, and methodologies in her hustle to fulfill the dreams of her ancestors and to build a world in which her daughters can thrive.” She currently is an Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, with scholarship that centers Indigenous feminisms and focuses on Indigenous resistance to violence against Native women. She is also a part of the Green Corn Collective and the Indigenous Goddess Gang.

Connie Huynh was born into a family of refugees after they fled their homeland in Viet Nam. Never one to believe in “too much of a good thing” when it comes to organizing, she stays committed to women of color leading the struggle to win genuine liberation through her work with AF3IRM. Besides coordinating with the National Executive Committee, Connie is also actively involved with AF3IRM LA’s #SurvivorsNotCriminals campaign to end the criminalization of sex trafficking survivors; #JusticeNotCharity campaign to organize transnationally with communities that have been displaced from their land and homes; and in helping to build a militant feminist sisterhood and political home for revolutionary mothers, especially as a mother herself.  Connie is also the national Healthcare for All Campaign Director at People’s Action.

In the face of multiple violences and oppressions, the forum’s organizers focused the program on visions of liberation and the intermingling of wisdoms and collective memory from different communities, especially between transnational and indigenous women. In addition to this powerful plenary, there will be a keynote address and ideological and art workshop sessions.   Yvonne Mahelona, indigenous Hawaiian (Kanaka) and transnational feminist organizer with AF3IRM Hawai’i, will be the keynote speaker. The workshops, organized around two themes: “Where the Diaspora Meets the Indigenous” and “Art as Resistance,”  will reflect and forward our previous theory-building around what liberation looks like and what we can do to organize to achieve it.

AF3IRM LA welcome all girls and women-identified people of color with a love for justice and a thirst for liberation to join us.