Diana Joyce Fox

This interdisciplinary workshop will be organized around a historic Gathering of Maroon communities from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, St. Vincent, Grenada, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Sierra Leone, and Dominica, who will come together in the island nation of Dominica from November 4-7th, 2021 to further their twin quest to build Maroon Unity across the Western Hemisphere, and to obtain United Nations’ recognition of their status as Indigenous peoples. Our workshop team will remain for three more days to continue reflecting on the theoretical implications for the anthropology of human rights along with Indigenous, Black feminist, womanist and political anthropologies of this historic event. Maroons are survivors of Indigenous nations and peoples of Africa who have struggled to retain their African lifeways embedded in their cultures, languages, spirituality, political organization and ties to the natural world, despite a tragic history of gross human rights abuses and crimes against humanity. The event offers a unique opportunity to observe, document, and reflect on ideas about two topics: Maroon unity and Indigeneity. The Workshop will unpack Maroon participants’ understanding of the ideals and ideas of unity and indigeneity, covering questions the academic team seeks to answer as scholars and supporters of grassroots social movements. We will offer and incorporate comparative analyses highlighting central themes, questions, and reflections.