Decoloniality as Praxis: Restoration, Freedom, and Justice

Abstract

In our consideration of how we develop and enact strategies in which decoloniality of libraries may be realized, Black American librarians must have a collective understanding of the urgency of situating our ways of knowing and the curation of knowledge as part of epistemic restoration and justice. As noted by Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2019) “the intention of colonialism was destroying other civilizations rather than blending different worlds…colonialism engaged in a redefinition of the human species, socially classifying and racially hierarchizing rather than inventing common humanity” (pp. 202-203). Given the current fascist and genocidal (global) practices of white supremacy, how might we, practitioners, administrators, and teachers, reclaim our epistemic heritage to reimage libraries beyond their current functions? In this session, the presenter will define decoloniality, show examples of cultural genocide (history, culture, and memory) and epistemic injustice, and invite the attendees as thinking partners to envision libraries as not just physical manifestations of knowing and memory.