S4E4 of Tatreez Talk: World Building Through Tatreez With Razan
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As I’ve been reflecting on tatreez as a tool for imagination and future-building, this week’s Tatreez Talk episode couldn’t have come at a better time.
I’m joined by Razan (@stitchingliberation), a diasporic Palestinian researcher and facilitator who uses tatreez to navigate grief, reclaim ancestral knowledge, and build solidarity with Indigenous communities. She reminds us that embroidery can be a form of ceremony—one that helps us remember, resist, and reimagine.
It’s a powerful reminder that even in something as small as reviving an old shirt or stitching on denim, we’re participating in something much bigger: collective worldbuilding, one thread at a time.
Episode Shownotes
RAZAN IS A DIASPORIC PALESTINIAN RESEARCHER, COMMUNITY WORKER AND TATREEZ FACILITATOR BASED OUT OF TORONTO (@STITCHINGLIBERATION). Razan introduces her work, which is rooted in Indigenous and Palestinian feminist methodologies to consider the relationships, material cultures, and joint resistances between Palestinian and Indigenous communities engaging in collective world building on Turtle Island.
Razan reflects on how tatreez serves as a living archive—a medium that carries the memory of land, lineage, and liberation. She shares how she uses storytelling, embroidery, and community facilitation as tools to navigate diasporic grief, reclaim ancestral knowledge, and resist cultural erasure. The discussion touches on the deeply emotional and political layers of embroidery, especially as Palestinians continue to survive and create despite ongoing displacement and violence.
Practicing tatreez can become a ceremony—one that reconnects the personal with the political. Razan talks about how she frames her workshops around themes like survival, love, and imagination, and how this practice allows her to build solidarities between Palestinian and Indigenous communities. The episode is a powerful reminder that stitching can be a radical act of remembering, resisting, and reimagining.
Get in touch with her tatreez IG account @stitchingliberation or through the art collective @furdose that she is a part of in Toronto.
You’ll hear about:
>> 2:04: Razan’s connection to Palestine
>> 3:27: Relationship with tatreez
>> 7:15: Palestinian-Indigenous worldbuilding through tatreez
>> 13:03: How and where is tatreez resistance
>> 19:03: Getting involved when on stolen land through tatreez
>> 29:00: Envisioning land back for Palestine through tatreez
>> 32:30: What’s next for Razan’s tatreez journey
>> 35:37: Life lessons from tatreez
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Links Mentioned
>> “Beading Becomes a Part of Your Life”: Transforming the Academy Through the Use of Beading as a Method of Inquiry article by Lana Ray
Transcript
Lina: Hi stitchers! Welcome to tatreez talk, where we share conversations about Palestinian embroidery. I'm Lina here with my co-host Amani, chatting with talented embroiders and artists sharing their stories, inspirations, and the cultural significance behind their work.
Amanne: On today's episode. We're chatting with Razan, a diasporic Palestinian researcher, community worker and tatreez facilitator based out of Toronto. She works from indigenous and Palestinian feminist mythologies to consider the relationships, material cultures, and joint resistances between Palestinian and indigenous communities engaging in collective world building on Turtle Island, Welcome to tatreez Talk Razan
Razan: Hi! Everyone! Lina! Me! I'm Floy.
Razan: an honor so excited to be here
Lina: It is our pleasure. Actually, I was telling Amani like I think, like a month before we were recording this, I was in Toronto with Razan, and
Lina: literally learning indigenous art forms together in community with other indigenous communities within Canada, and it was such a joy to just be and feel safe and have these conversations with like without being interrupted. So I knew after that session, I really wanted to bring you onto the podcast because you're doing some incredible research. You're
Lina: doing some incredible work in general. And I'm I'm just really excited for the the broader tatreez community to hear all about it, and hopefully also engage and participate with you. So thank you for taking the time
Razan: Yeah, thanks for inviting me to be on here, and it was so lovely like I do have to say, seeing you in person after like years of like since the pandemic we connected.
Razan: So it was so cool. It was like Whoa, your person in front of me right now. I know
Lina: I know I know it's so different. It's so different
Razan: So different.
Lina: In-person experience a hundred percent. Well, Razan, let's kick off. Then. We always like to ask our guests about you and your family's connections to Palestine. Would you mind sharing
Razan: Yeah, of course.
Razan: So on my dad's side, because you know, this is how it goes. They're actually from bettembrian.
Razan: And my Mom's side is from Einhold, which is like a much smaller village in the Nablus government. And it's so interesting because I feel like this is the part, maybe in some people's stories, where they talk about their grandmother stitching, or like a history of like matrix and the family stitching, I come from regions where like was not
Razan: as commonly practiced, mostly, like agricultural workers. Very little time with the sun to be able to. Actually. So, yeah. So my connections to my family and to Palestine to land. It's so interesting because has been such a strong like medium and force in my life to connect back to the places where my
Razan: family is from, and at the same time it's like taking it up like with my mom, and like learning it together in the diaspora, is like informed very heavily, like the way that we connect back to our roots, even though, yeah, we come from more agricultural villages
Amanne: And what was like. What was your relationship to Tetris growing up? Since you know you, as you said, you don't come from a region where Tetris is really practiced. But was it something that you saw in your life? Was it something that your family like participated in in other ways beyond, like actually creating Tetris
Razan: Yeah, I think it's a story that's really common amongst a lot of diasporic Palestinians. We see it in our homes. I was familiar with it from an aesthetic standpoint. But growing up, I didn't know what it meant. What goes into the technique, the labor, the love, the time, the energy, and the stories. And so
Razan: what ended up happening was during the pandemic. I started just questioning everything, and my mom and I actually were spending so much more time than usual inside with one another, and the topic came up when I started researching it. I couldn't find much about tots, but at that time a lot of like where and vintage bookstores were actually putting their stock
Razan: online because they were closing their doors so suddenly, I actually had access to print material, being able to purchase it online, ship it to where I live in Toronto and read about for the very 1st time.
Razan: And that was something that was really really special. My mom learned it in high school as part of like crafts making. It was very typical growing up in Jordan as a kid, and I know it's quite common in the Arab world in general.
Razan: So she knew, like the basics. And then with the books and her basic knowledge, a couple Youtube channels, we were able to figure it out. And here we are. Many years later
Lina: That's so cool. So what were those print materials that you got
Razan: Yeah, so there was.
Razan: Oh, my gosh! There's Leila Khalidi's book was one of the very 1st ones that I read, which is a very text, heavy book.
Lina: Yeah, yeah, it really is, yeah.
Razan: And then there was a book. I wish I had them, because a friend is actually borrowing them right now. But there's
Razan: Oh, my goodness!
Razan: I'm forgetting his name! It's a Palestinian
Lina: Nabil and Nani
Razan: Not that one. I actually have only seen virtual versions of this one
Lina: Yeah.
Razan: It's the one on Palestinian costume and jewelry is the English title
Lina: Okay.
Razan: Yeah.
Lina: I don't know. If I know that one, we'll have to dig it up.
Lina: We'll have to dig it up. I can send you some pictures. I wish I had them with me right now.
Lina: Yeah.
Razan: Friend is borrowing them and then also I very early on got access to like Sunbula's book. There was there was the short kind of storytelling book. But then they also had the 17 embroidery techniques that one was really helpful, especially with like the step by step, and then opening up the world to way more than the cross stitch.
Razan: yeah. So I think those were like the most influential books, and then eventually splurged on. Widad Kaawar threads of identity, which is my favorite book, the newer text
Lina: Yeah, it's a favorite for a lot of people.
Amanne: Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. I I love that. You were able to kind of dive in and read a little bit more about the threes, and I'm sure that that really
Amanne: inspired a lot of your work, and like the work that you're doing now. And you know you talked. And even before we started recording, we were talking a lot about the work that you are doing between Palestinian and indigenous movements and world building, as you call it. So can you tell us a little bit about that like, what does that mean? And how has that
Amanne: like work really been shaped by the creative work you're doing with the threes
Razan: Yeah, I think, as someone who I grew up in the city, and I grew up very acutely aware, despite living in a very heavily Arab diaspora, and living in probably one of the most populous, like Palestinian communities in North America. There's still this kind of feeling of non-belonging, and then, when you start to interrogate that, especially from a critical lens, you quickly come to realize that it's because you're also
Razan: as an indigenous person you're rooted to land, and you're not. When you're far away from your homelands you're displaced, and you're dispossessed from your homelands. But then you're living in a settler colonial state. So then there's this contradiction. And even as a kid, I was aware of these things, the ways that native people and indigenous people were raised in like our school curricula.
Razan: There's different threads that I picked up on that felt like I saw myself kind of like mirrors and reflections and windows into
Razan: all of these histories and present realities that I saw myself as a Palestinian in them, but couldn't necessarily place them because we weren't being taught by indigenous people in indigenous literatures and knowledges were not something that was part of my day to day. So, growing up.
Razan: I've started doing a lot of that work myself, whether it's like reading indigenous authors. Poetry is a really big one. And then eventually, when I graduated from university and started working in the social sector, I was working with a lot of nonprofits that were resettling refugees. This question kind of came up again like, we're doing resettlement work in the settler state, and then once again. Indigenous people are completely missing from that picture and from that education that we were
Razan: using in order to
Razan: help people acclimize to living here, and at the same time me feeling all kinds of ways about living here. So that's when I really turned even more to showing up to indigenous protests and rallies. And then you start to realize there's a lot of really beautiful like art making practices that are also rooted in the same kinds of values and principles that we, as Palestinians, also engage in.
Razan: And so all these little pieces started coming together like the work that I was doing with refugees. But then going into graduate school for community development, and very purposefully, like only taking courses with indigenous scholars because those are the people I wanted to learn from, and then realizing that indigenous methodologies, knowledge systems, perspectives
Razan: are really
Razan: great at framing the Palestinian experience. And Palestinians are also doing this work. And it's wonderful. But I think we have so much to learn from indigenous scholars as well, and community activists and land defenders on how they do this work as well.
Razan: and so, yeah, and I think that's kind of also where, over the last couple of years, being more diligent as a Palestinian living on stolen lands, what are my responsibilities to being on this land and our activism to our people in Philistine and our artwork, commemorating that resistance and being in itself an act of resistance like sitting here until freezing to me is like defiance to the settler state. It's like I am here
Razan: picking up this indigenous craft, and I'm doing it, despite the odds, being lands and waters, a ways
Razan: it's so powerful. But it's even more powerful, I feel when you're doing it in community with people that are also so heavily involved in
Razan: imagining a decolonial future and working towards different ways to achieve liberation, not just for Palestinians, but also for indigenous people here in the lands where we are, because it's all connected, it's all intertwined. And so in the same way that settler, colonialism and states and empire work and conspire together in order to oppress us. We can also work together in order to liberate us
Lina: That is so powerful. It's it's yeah. And it's it's something that we. It's interesting because I feel like. And the conversations that I've been having over the last, you know, year on this podcast but just more generally because of the spaces that I'm having getting access to through
Lina: like, I was never really that aware of indigenous communities local to me, and I feel like that is something that has like. Patrice has kind of opened that door. And it's and it's just so wild. Because, like what's happening in Palestine isn't like the 1st time in history, you know, like this has been happening for centuries for centuries, by the powers at play. And I think what we're getting better at is
Lina: each movement learns from the previous movements, and then takes it a step further, and I think what you're talking through is ultimately, you know, hopefully, we can actually see it through all the way to full liberation for everybody, not just Palestinians, but the entire world. So I have 2 questions for you, one because I struggle with this. It's kind of more of a personal question I'm going to use the time to ask you. I feel like over the last year as well. I've been
Lina: kind of I like the word interrogate that you used interrogating my own like definitions of what is resistance? And where does tatreez play a role in that? And I really, I'm actually struggling these days to like.
Lina: allow for nuance in that word, because to me like, when I hear the word resist resist or resistance, it's like to me. That's a very powerful word, and I feel like I'm too privileged to use that word in the capacity that I'm practicing. So I'm curious to hear kind of your take on that. And then, as like, I guess, a natural segue off of that kind of conversation
Lina: I'm curious about like, where does tatreez play the role in resistance. You kind of talked a little bit through it, but but would love to hear more about kind of what does that actually look like, you know, and and more than just like a concept
Razan: Yeah, this is such an important question, and I think about it every day. There's that guilt that we carry as Palestinians in the diaspora right? But I think
Razan: resistance comes in so many different forms, and we can. I all confidently say that, like land defense and resistance on the front line is the most important. That is, the front that is, making, pushing the limits for all of us to be able to participate in our different forms of resistance. So there's that right. But and then the different ways. And how is like a form of resistance? I see it as
Razan: one
Razan: like I mentioned earlier. It's that defiance like, despite all odds, there is a way for us to continue traditional practices and be ready for when liberation is around.
Razan: and you know, I'll be throwing in a lot of like indigenous feminist like scholars work where they've very heavily written about all of this stuff, and I feel and shared stories and family stories, and not just things in literature that I think, as Palestinians we can really learn from. And so one thing is thinking about, for example, the consequences of residential schools, and so indigenous children who were
Razan: who were forced into residential schools, or in Canada. We had something called the sixties scoop where children were taken away from their family after the wave of the residential schools. Sometimes these children came back to their family, but they didn't have the language anymore.
Razan: They didn't have a way of connecting with their mothers and grandmothers. And so when they sit together, and then they're engaging in whether it's weaving or it's beading, or it's stitching, or it's basket making, whatever it is that became their language.
Razan: And so suddenly, like the
Razan: all of these interventions on indigenous communities where settler society has tried so hard to annihilate indigenous people, to genocide indigenous people, to erase our culture and our ways of being and our ways of knowing and being in relationship to one another.
Razan: It's so incredible how we can still find practices like tatreez, like beating in order to rebuild all of that. And so yes, it's a material practice, and it's a cultural practice, and we feel guilty because it's art. And we're made to feel guilty about art, but when we start to think about it as well, how does tatreez help me
Razan: have a conversation with the elders in my family? How can help me connect with my family or my chosen family. How do I learn more about the landscape of Palestine, the birds, the flora, the fauna, the food
Razan: through tatreez that is incredibly powerful. And because it's so rooted in centuries of history.
Razan: nothing could erase that right looking at a thobe is looking at lifetimes of stories of people.
Razan: and I think I'll end off with
Razan: why, my research trajectory kind of ended up leaning towards Tetris. I see tatreez as a really worthwhile mode of inquiry. It's an intellectual endeavor, it is not easy to tell, tries. It is not easy to tell stories through intricate patterns and shapes and colors. And yet women for generations have done it. And because of the way like Western science works and knowledge production work.
Razan: all of all of these ways of generating stories and generating knowledge
Razan: end up being reduced down to just women's craft in a more domestic domain. And so they're not actually seen as intellectual sites of struggle. But they are. And
Razan: even from all the different topics you've hosted in your podcast or the most recent one around like appropriation of tatreez, and the way it's co-opted by Zionists in the settler State
Amanne: That
Razan: Makes the trees a site of struggle. That is a front that we fight as well.
Razan: And it's just as important because I think people have different skills to contribute to the overall cause. And so if this is something that you're really passionate about, and you're really good at it. And you want to do it. It's better than you know, not doing something. I think we need people at all fronts when it comes to the Palestinian cause, to trees and cultural resistance definitely being one of them
Amanne: Yeah, definitely. Thank you for. Oh, my God, I have so many.
Amanne: I might have too many. Follow up questions. So let me like focus in on one of the 1st things that you said that like really resonated with me was how you're talking about the fact that these is kind of this language that can connect, and similar to. As you were discussing your local indigenous communities, and what happened in Canada with these residential schools, and how
Amanne: these these children came back to their families and were able, really connect through art through traditional crafts. That's something that
Amanne: I think for me personally, is the area of deities. I found the most joy in through this podcast through our like global, social media community. If you will through the retreats that we've done is being able to connect with people that I
Amanne: I may have never connected with in any other way. But the threes is the thing that connects us, and it's so cool and it's so powerful. And you know you're talking a lot about the work that you're doing locally, and how you've been able to connect with local indigenous communities of the land that you are living on.
Amanne: What would you say to somebody who, whether they're Palestinian or non-palestinian? They're just an ally who lives on stolen land and wants to connect deeper to the local indigenous communities and wants to support.
Amanne: How would you recommend that they get involved, and that they use their practice and their community to connect and and support each other's struggles
Razan: Yeah, I'm really glad you asked this question, because I feel like it's on us, like as Palestinians to like, call in or
Amanne: Didn't yet
Razan: Yeah.
Razan: like, this is an area we're maybe lacking in a little bit. Let's think of some creative ways to like engage in relationship building, and from the side of things I feel like one way is the circles themselves. I'm very intentional about the way that tatreez
Razan: circles. Sorry I'm intentional about the curriculum that I create for total 3 circles, as well as the way that it's promoted, and who I am
Razan: creating the space for so oftentimes most of the time I do tell 3 circles that are maybe just for Palestinian indigenous folks, or maybe, like Palestinian black, indigenous folks, racialized folks like I play around in the back end of the event right? All right. There's like a little ally section. If you don't fit all the box that's cool, we love our allies. But but there's really it's really important, in my opinion, to intentionally create, like
Razan: welcoming spaces where Palestinians, indigenous and black folks can encounter one another. I find that, like in the area where I live, I used to live in Toronto. I live now in Mississauga, which is out on the suburbs of the Toronto area we live in relatively segregated neighborhoods
Razan: like growing up. I
Razan: mostly saw Arab and brown kids like I didn't see anyone else, and going with my parents like, there's comfort levels there. It's not necessarily bad. It's actually really good in the sense that, like, I'm so glad I had access to cultural foods and my language. And I know Arabic and all these things. But it's not great when you're trying to really expand your worldviews and recognizing that the struggle is real.
Razan: for all these communities, and indigenous and black communities in particular, have been fighting the struggle in North America for much longer than we have. So we have so much to learn from them. So yes, intentionally creating space where your circle is calling and soliciting folks that are maybe engaged in community organizing. So it's a healing space for them.
Razan: Those folks, you know, the ones organizing the protests, the ones organizing mutual aid are probably the least likely to have a moment to slow down and to sit and touches. And so that's been part of also the work that I do where I am tapping into organizing communities and trying to offer that space to slow down from the day-to-day chaos of being an organizer.
Razan: I think, also supporting like mutual aid campaigns that support indigenous people in our local communities is really important. And to tap into that, it's really about making sure you're educated about like what grassroots organizations exist, and some places have them more than others. So it's very place specific.
Razan: But and there's many different ways to like engage with people just like you would with any community. But I've been finding that like working at the grassroots level, working with or adjacent to protest, organizers has been really fruitful and has been like a really beautiful space to do that. And the other thing is that land defense.
Razan: like on Turtle Island in North America, is very real. It is very real. There is a huge history of a land defense. There's a huge presence. There are pipelines that are being fought right now. There are nuclear facilities. There are different struggles with like water, contamination and safe water access all over North America.
Razan: you know. Not not too long ago you have Standing Rock in 2016, a very active site of struggle, where Palestinians were also present there, but it took organized efforts by like, namely, like the Palestinian movement. Palestinian youth movement to name one organization like it took effort to organize young people to go
Amanne: Yeah.
Razan: Physically and be at a site of land defense. I think that's really really important. And then you can bring tatreez there, too.
Amanne: Right? You can
Razan: Cook together. You can tell trees together. You can sit in ceremony together. You can share stories. You can hear from people and really build those relationships.
Razan: And you know, I think
Razan: I think I think I've offered maybe like a range here of things that can happen all kinds of different settings. But yeah, but there's something really special about
Razan: being at a site of land defense, I would say, or visiting those sites. I've had opportunities in my life where I've gotten to celebrate land being returned to indigenous people. And it's so joyous and beautiful. And that's where you live out in the Bay area. Imani, like shout.
Razan: Land! Trust! It is so cool. You know they do the Shamand walk because they're trying to get the shamounts back, and then they get one of them back, and there's Palestine flags
Amanne: And then
Razan: Palestine flags everywhere, and they're commemorating it in the celebration. We got our land back, and then there's Palestine flags, because Palestine will also be free.
Razan: So yeah. So I think there's
Razan: there's a lot you can do. Look out for the land defense happening in your area. Join it.
Razan: That's really there. I guess
Amanne: Yeah, oh, you're gonna make me cry. It's so. It's so beautiful. But you know, before we started recording, and you just mentioned like. We talked a little bit about the the Bay area and the art community here, and the social justice community. The Gen. Like the the genuine, like
Amanne: just collaborative work that happens across communities. And I will say, like, I'm very spoiled to have grown up in the Bay Area and very
Amanne: honored that
Amanne: you know the indigenous community here, and I will say the Asian American community here, the black community here, the Latinx community here they have always always stood in solidarity with us as Palestinians, and like with Palestinian liberation, with Palestinian resistance. And it's so
Amanne: valuable, and I think that we owe it as Palestinians. No matter where you live in the globe. You're probably living on stolen land, and it's really really important for us to continue to support the indigenous communities and the other marginalized communities that we live amongst because no one's going to save us. We have to save ourselves, and we have to save each other.
Amanne: So I just want to echo, like, you know, everything that you're saying. And you know again, as somebody who's very privileged to have grown up in the Bay Area and grown up around this like, you know, it's sometimes it's very lost on me that not everyone has that like even Lena, like to hear you say that you didn't really like have that connection? That's again, it's not something I'm used to. So I just definitely appreciate Razan, you coming on.
Amanne: And you know, giving us all these insights and sharing the importance of this work, I think, especially now, as we see the continuation of the genocide in Gaza. It's so important to continue to say this stuff. So thank you very much.
Amanne: Sorry. I got like very emotional. Lena knows how I get
Lina: No, no. And I mean, it's yeah. I mean, this is this is real, and that Rosanna was such a beautiful
Lina: image of like you witnessing land being returned, or land being saved ultimately for for the indigenous community. And in this, in the Bay area that's that must have been such a powerful space to be in and inspiring. And you know, I, Manny and I were talking about this before the recording. I actually had this question that I wanted to ask you, and I think this is
Lina: a really natural opportunity to ask you this question. But you know now that you've seen an example of what this could look like. I want you to kind of envision a liberated future for Palestinians through the lens of what would that look like, what are we wearing? What are we doing? What are we remembering? What you know? What are all the things that we can start to imagine as we continue to fight for a liberated Palestine
Razan: This is. It's such a beautiful, beautiful, and loaded question.
Razan: And there's the there's the part of me that Lot wants to say, like the cliche romanticized, sitting in the rolling hills, drinking some shy
Razan: puts phasing under the olive trees.
Razan: And I and I want all those things, and I want all those things for all Palestinians and all people that are living under occupation. I want to invite everyone over and be like, come to our rolling hills and tell trees with us under the olive trees. I think that
Razan: it makes me also think about how tatreez
Razan: is so heavily as a practice like, intertwined with
Razan: our customs, and like our social structures like us Palestinians.
Razan: I grieved like not having
Razan: something embroidered, or something Palestinian, or a piece of gold or or an artifact or something. When when I got married, you know, my mom grieved that she couldn't pass something down to me. And now, with, we're like, actually able to make things. And
Razan: it's not materialistic because we're talking about really important material cultures that are a reflection and representation of who we are as a people, and so to make that, and to pass that down from generation to generation, and to be in a liberated Palestine, where.
Razan: my children, you know my lifetime are wearing the things that I made, and my mom has made for them while we're going through this moment right now, this moment that is unlike any other moment in its gravity, and it's
Razan: devastation. But at the same time, and it's resistance and the steadfast of the Us. And people. We owe our liberation to them, and it will come in our lifetime. And so yes, well, like we said earlier, feels a little bit guilty sometimes to like sit until trees with everything going on. I try to think about how
Razan: everything that I'm making is going to survive this moment.
Razan: and we're going to survive this moment, and our children Will and Palestine will be liberated, and we'll get to sit around these things that we have created.
Razan: and it'll capture what we went through. And that is important. And everyone's story is important in that way.
Lina: Oh, my goodness, I'm Annie
Amanne: Yeah. Oh, I'm like, thank you so much for everything you're saying. I'm like a complete mess right now. I'm so emotional this week like, but it's so important everything that you're saying, and it's so beautiful and powerful. And again, I just Oh, God.
Amanne: I'm so obsessed with all the work you're doing, and I can't wait to continue to hear it. But I know you're also working on a few other things. So let's talk about what is next on your journey. What are some of the other projects that you have in the works right now?
Razan: Yes, lots happening.
Razan: So I am part of an art collective called Fridas. And we try to really bring art making practice, including tatreez, into political education.
Razan: So we're exploring like what that means and what that looks like, and being in community with folks around it. So if you're interested in keeping up to date with those different initiatives you can find us on Instagram, FURD. OSE. And our website is just for daus.com
Razan: and I am also supposed to be working on my Phd, it's not really happening.
Razan: it goes a lot like that for a lot of people, I would imagine, but it has just shifted a lot. It's about like world making between Palestinian indigenous communities. And that felt like way too big way, too abstract. And so it's actually going to be a participatory research project starting next year, where we're bringing folks together from various communities to engage in
Razan: as a way of world making together and so thinking through. Yes, how has settler colonialism impacted our lives, for example? But most importantly, how can we intervene on settler colonialism? How can we plan and plot and conspire together, and really using as a mode of inquiry as a way of
Razan: learning connecting to ancestral knowledge, but also creating things together that help vision visually.
Razan: collectively, what it means to live in a liberated future.
Razan: And so, if you're interested in getting to know more about my research. I'll pitch my contact information. If you're doing this work. I would absolutely love to hear from you, and that would be really, really great. There's not a lot in the literature that talks about
Razan: projects like these, but I know that they exist. So if you're someone who's doing them or know of them. Please reach out. Yeah. And then the last thing is that I will be, yeah. I'll be going on a bit of a maternity leave situation. So I might be like offline from social media for a while when this episode comes out. But I'm happy to stay connected at my Instagram, which is stitching liberation.
Razan: Yeah.
Lina: Oh, I love it! I love all the things design you're doing such beautiful, incredible work, and I can't wait to see where it goes, so we will definitely be staying in touch with you before we let you go, though we always like to ask our guests for any major life lessons that you've gained from. I'm sure there's a lot but would love to hear from you
Razan: Yeah. Oh, my goodness, till today's just so humbling.
Razan: Oh, yes.
Razan: And I was actually recently reading an article by like an Anishinaabe scholar and bead artist, Lana Ray, who, her research is very, very similar to. I'm just very inspired by her work, and the way that she takes up beadwork, and a lot of she has a section in an article called, I think, Beading. I can pull it up just so that everyone could see it.
Razan: I think beating is a way of life.
Razan: Beading becomes a part of your life where there's a section article she breaks down the different techniques, and what she learns from them, and one really stuck with me where she talks about securing a bead, and then how that's like a metaphor, but also a practice for being grounded in your values. And then I thought about how we tie a knot as like the 1st thing we do when we tell trees, and then we string it through, and then that's your
Razan: anchor point, right? And then you're doing that over and over and over again, and it just reminded me of like steadfastness, and like that commitment and that repetitiveness to be so grounded in your values until today is so slow that it forces you to really think about these things. And so, yeah, thinking very practically about
Razan: what it means to tatreez has really, I think
Razan: I don't want to say it has changed my life, but I also think that, like I could do a lot better job of implementing the teachings. Not very good at slowing down
Lina: We all can. We all can
Amanne: Yeah.
Lina: Shame in that
Amanne: Yeah.
Razan: Principles are there? I just, it's up to us to put it into practice. And there's so much that has to offer in in that regard. Yeah.
Amanne: Oh, thank you so much design. This was just such a valuable conversation. You got me all in my feelings. So thank you for that. But we're really excited to continue to see the work that you do. And I know we're gonna talk to you again very soon. So thank you again for your time.
Razan: Thank you.
Lina: It was such a pleasure to have this conversation with the design. I am so happy that we were able to catch her. And
Lina: I just I feel like she's given me so much hope in a time when it's it's you know. It's it's pretty bad, I mean
Amanne: Yeah, it's
Lina: So if there's any time to feel hopeless and helpless. This is one of those times, and the way that she speaks about, and the way that she speaks about liberation movements is really inspiring, and is giving me the energy to kind of keep going, and and a reminder that the work that we do is really important, even if it doesn't feel
Lina: like it's yielding in what we envision to be liberation for Palestine
Amanne: Yeah, she definitely had me all in my feelings. So sorry. I probably sound like a idiot talking. I was just so I was so moved by everything that she was saying and the work that she's doing, and you know, even just kind of thinking through as she's talking, thinking about like what we can do. What more we can do is like individuals. And as a community,
Amanne: so yeah, it's just, it's always important to have these conversations, and a good reminder, as you're saying, you know, like, especially right now, when things do feel so hopeless like. It's nice to to see some positivity in some way, and you know again, I I do want to say, like, as I said when we were recording, and even before we start recording. We were talking about this with Razan, but, like
Amanne: even with me, being so lucky and privileged to have grown up in a community where this type of work was always discussed. And
Amanne: It was always work that felt very important and meaningful and interconnected to the work that we, as Palestinian community, have always done it's still important to discuss it on a larger scale. And it's important to continue to push ourselves to do that. And I think I don't know about you, Lena, but for me.
Amanne: especially with like both workshops, but also with like the 3 circles that we've done locally like.
Amanne: There are a lot more allies that have just continued to come through and a lot of these allies that come through are from other marginalized communities. And it's really beautiful that they are able to see themselves in our art and able to see our struggles
Amanne: intertwined with their struggles for liberation, too. There is just something powerful in this idea of.
Amanne: We talk a lot about community, but like looking at a larger community. A community outside of just our Palestinian tatreez community because
Amanne: Anglo culture is very heavy on individuality and most other cultures are not. And there's a reason why. You know, other cultures don't really focus on individuality and focus on community not to take away from any of us as individuals. But there's so much power in communities. I'll get off my soapbox now, because I think I could just go on and on and on.
Amanne: But again, just such a powerful conversation like, please please see how you can connect with your local communities. Outside of your Palestinian community. All of our struggles are intertwined, and it's really important for us to continue to uplift and support each other
Amanne: so as always. Thank you so much for listening to Tatreez Talk. We want to hear about your tatreez journeys. Please share your stories with us at the tatreeztalk@gmail.com. And we might have you on an upcoming episode. Please don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on any of your favorite listening platforms, and of course, be sure to leave us a 5 star review. You can follow me at @minamanne and Lina at @linasthobe. And of course you could follow the pod
Amanne: podcast at @tatreeztalk. We'll talk to you soon.
