Investigating the Translocal as (A)kin: A Nomadic Soul-Searching
Rebecca G
Instead of describing ourselves as living on ‘islands in the sea’, the Tongan and Fijian scholar Epeli Hau’ofa proposed the metaphor of ‘a sea of islands’ — centring a boundless world in which water binds and communes. The world of our sea-faring ancestors was one where “peoples and cultures moved and mingled, unhindered by boundaries of the kind erected much later by imperial powers” (Hau’ofa 153, 154). Returning to the fluid fabric that bridges the lands we inhabit is a timely reminder of our lateral relationship to other beings.
The movement towards situated practices was one of the curatorial concerns behind the Open Academy this year. There was an emphasis on active, translocal exchange between the audience, the Fellows, and their ‘art pals’ — artists currently based in Singapore (the programme’s host country) who were paired with each individual Fellow, a process which would have otherwise been mediated by an institution such as a museum or university. The Fellows were given a choice as to whom they would be interested to connect with, which enabled personalised, intercultural engagements that were both artist-led and removed from bureaucratic expectations.
The term “translocal” refers to the linking (“trans-”) of different localities (“local”), and “the purpose of this approach is to create an iterative learning space across multiple communities” (Kudo et al. 3). Here, localities are valued as sources of knowledge that resonate, instead of the usual geopolitical interpretation that only serves to highlight borders or the incomparability of communities. Specifically, translocal art “emancipates the local”, as it is intrinsically involved with the societal context and cultural background through which it came into being — in other words, “one’s locality can be the locus of global movements and worldwide networks” (Boon). This fosters acts of allyship and solidarity which dismantles isolationist policies.
The possibilities that translocal exchanges offer can be universal in spite of spatial and temporal differences. They draw attention to localised nuances and the various identities within a country or ethnicity, which are often overlooked in global discourse. Rola Khayyat's presentation and workshop revolved around the use of intergenerational archives — such as photographs — as an ongoing excavation of memory that ranges from introspective lived experiences to retrospective analyses of ‘empires’ (in this instance, the intertwined histories of Khayyat’s immediate family and the Saudi Arabian Oil Group / Aramco). Though the overarching narrative is one that is highly specific to a certain culture or industry, the creative processes that were utilised in the work can be extended to other localities and personal (re)discoveries of a similar nature. This pluralist approach to knowledge formation has the ability to educate, elicit empathy, and resonate with individuals and communities from the grassroots up.
A translocal perspective necessitates a rethinking of existing partisan hierarchies. The individual and their community is the locus of power, as presented in Rah Naqvi’s and Martha Luisa Hernández Cadenas’ work. Social revolutions can trace their genesis to the self, the domestic space, and public arenas such as the barbershop and the streets of Havana. Shifting our focus to these intimate relationships reveals the possibility of redefinition and resuscitation. A craftsperson documents the history of their locality and periods of crisis through their textiles; a performer weaves a tapestry of symphonic rage that addresses queer, ethnic, and gender invisibility in contemporary patriarchies through popular myths. These acts of storytelling and resistance, microscale as they seem, empower individuals as initiators of change and movement — in contrast to increasingly parochial rhetoric that promotes adherence to homogeneous systems¹. Decentralising power enables us to reimagine futures, and to see the ‘other’ as kin. In his presentation, Chidumaga Uzoma Orji advocates for ‘intentional dreaming’ as a strategy for collective world-making, and regaining ownership of a process that has been stifled by a postcolonial reality that was not designed for and by the communities who inhabit it. During an informal conversation with him, Keren Lasme, and communications specialist Sarah Bagharib, we realised that the questions we were discussing had striking commonalities across cultures and time zones.
To be honest, ‘translocal’ was an academic descriptor that I had seen in passing, but had never really given much thought to previously. It was only through my interactions with the Fellows and the audience at the Open Academy that I experienced its potency. It is clear that a paradigm shift is needed. That could imply a return to a “dynamism that is not simply rooted, but routed” (Nabilah), an understanding of flux that is intrinsic to multiple Global South contexts. The sea transforms with the in-between — what seems to divide us on land is in fact our common denominator. Akin to the Fellows of the Open Academy, we all possess knowledge of our surrounding ecologies, families lost and found, and ourselves — which, when illustrated through literature and art, relate to strangers on their own terms. The Martinican philosopher Frantz Fanon writes of the possibility to discover and love another, wherever they may be, and of “the quite simple attempt to touch the other, to feel the other, to explain the other to myself” (231). The translocal worldview reframes moments of particularity as collaborative opportunities for (re)union. We are our own griot² and dibia³, with the inherent ability to be storytellers, historians, healers, leaders, fortune tellers, and intermediaries in our communities. It is only through an awareness of this planetary interface that we will be able to gather, dance, and dream of a collective future that is reformed from the margins.
¹ Joustra, Robert J. “Have We Reached Peak Pluralism?: Proposing a New Paradigm.” LSE Religion and Global Society, 29 January 2021,
² A griot is a West African storyteller, singer, musician, and oral historian. They train to excel as orators, lyricists and musicians. The griot keeps records of all the births, deaths, marriages through the generations of the village or family. Master of the oral traditions, the griot plays a key role in west African society.
Keita, Seckou. “Griot Tradition: My Culture.” Seckou Kita, www.seckoukeita.com/my-culture. Accessed 21 May 2023.
³ Expert healers, called dibia, cover a variety of major medical and societal needs requiring expert knowledge, healing skills, and resources. A dibia is both a restorer and transmitter of life, a healer, a medicine man/woman and priest. Healers engage in a great number of ritual and healing activities to address ailments, illness, social and cosmological disorder.
Iroegbu, Patrick. “Healing Insanity: Skills and Expert Knowledge of Igbo Healers.” Africa Development / Afrique et Développement, vol. 30, no. 3, 2005, pp. 78–92.
Works cited:
Boon, Errol. “Translocality: Artistic Internationalisation after the Corona Crisis.” DutchCulture, 2 June 2020
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press. 1986.
Hau’ofa, Epeli. “Our Sea of Islands.” The Contemporary Pacific, vol. 6, no. 1, 1994, pp. 148–61.
Kudo, Shogo, et al. “Translocal Learning Approach: A New Form of Collective Learning for Sustainability.” Resources, Environment and Sustainability, vol. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 1–8,
Nabilah Husna Binte Abdul Rahman. “Tending to Wounds.” Mekong Review, vol. 8, no. 30, February 2023.
Works referenced:
Joustra, Robert J. “Have We Reached Peak Pluralism?: Proposing a New Paradigm.” LSE Religion and Global Society, 29 January 2021
