Translating Celestial Solidarity: Diasporic Chinese Alignments with Indigenous Struggles in Aotearoa New Zealand and so-called Canada

Abstract

In conditions of ongoing colonization and Indigenous resurgence, non-Indigenous peoples of colour have had to confront their positionality, complicity, and responsibilities to Indigenous peoples. In the past two decades, there has been growing support and attention from Chinese diasporas towards Indigenous struggles in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and so-called Canada. To strengthen Indigenous and diasporic Chinese solidarities, this dissertation explores how Chinese diasporic peoples have come to align with decolonization and Indigenous movements, how place-based histories influence Chinese and Indigenous relations and solidarity, and the potentials of transnational exchanges of strategies between Chinese diasporas. Using interdisciplinary qualitative and arts-based methods drawing from autoethnography, interviews, and focus groups involving 46 participants, I synthesized learnings into an aspirational framework I call ‘celestial solidarity.’ ‘Celestial’ was used as a racial slur against early Chinese immigrants. I reclaim this term to draw wisdom from the skies and to argue that thinking through celestiality allows us to take an approach that recognizes multiple co-existing ontologies, and respect the independence of Indigenous nations while attending to the interdependence of life and liberation. I draw out the key themes into three tenets and practices of ‘celestial’ solidarity: 1) honouring all that is unseen, including the spiritual realm, the ancestors, and the unconscious, 2) integrating spatial and temporal solidarity and 3) generating portals between worlds and beyond borders - this is a call for transnational relationship-building and internationalism to ‘fight colonialism from East to West.’ I argue that the practice of translation, in the most expansive sense, is central to all three tenets to foster Indigenous understandings of the land, and build power and solidarity locally and transnationally.