ICS Seminar Series

UPCOMING

When Empires Fall: Afro-Indigenous Epistemologies of Survival in the Blak Pasifik

Presenter: Kaiya Aboagye

Discussant: Shima Shabazi

Chair: Catherine Hastings

Date & Time: 28 May 2026 | 11:30am - 1:00pm

Room: EB.3.38 Parramatta South Campus

Abstract

Blackness and Indigeneity have always been foundational to the British project of settler colonialism in so-called Australia and fundamental to the long history of US imperialism. The Black Pacific was never incidental to empire, but has always been a central theatre of imperial expansion and anti-colonial struggle. However, Afro-Indigenous epistemologies (particularly from the Black Pasifik region) often remain peripheral in geo-political relations and dominant scholarly frameworks of race. Very little is known about Afro-Indigeneity’s discursive, structural, or racialised configurations within Bla(c)k Australia and the Black Pacific. AfroIndigeneity as a mode of analysis offers new and alternative frameworks to examine racial formations and the intersections between Blackness and Indigeneity.

This talk will discuss theoretical debates and conceptual developments explored in my doctoral project, Afro-Indigenous Presence: Sovereignty, Refusal and Radical Traditions in Blak Australia. I argue that radical Afro-Indigenous epistemologies challenge not only traditional framings of race and Blackness, but are also significant in the political project of Indigenous sovereignty. This seminar will explore what it means to develop theory specific to the Blak Australian and Bla(c)k Pasifik experience and to generate knowledge informed by a political commitment to Indigenous sovereignty and Afro/Indigenous refusal.

Biography

Kaiya is an Afro-Indigenous writer and sociology scholar in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. Kaiya is a Lecturer and subject coordinator for HUMN1060: Introduction to Indigenous People, places and Philosophies.

To join our email list and receive updates on upcoming seminars, guest speakers, and institute news, please email Sally at s.byrnes@westernsydney.edu.au

Semester 1 Program

Download 2026 Semester 1 Program (PDF) (opens in a new window)

Past ICS Seminars

ICS Seminar 2025 Semester 2 Program (PDF) (opens in a new window) [[link]]

ICS Seminar 2024 Semester 1 Program (PDF) (Opens in a new window) [[link]]

ICS Seminar 2024 Semester 2 Program (PDF) (Opens in a new window) [[link]]

Access all our previous ICS Seminars.