Zerebar Karimi

Over here at Mary Lee we’re big fans of people introducing themselves as they’d like to be known and here’s what Zerebar Karimi had to say about herself: “I’m a woman in my twenties who was born in the Qandil Mountains in Kurdistan, and raised in various places in the Middle East. I’ve been living in Adelaide, Australia since 1998 and am lucky enough to work as a Union Organiser. I try to be more involved in community work and organisations that uphold the principles of international solidarity, of gender justice, of queer rights and workers’ rights, of justice for First Nations peoples, and the intersection between all these things. As a person of colour who is relatively white passing, I’m mindful to acknowledge that I do not suffer the full force of racism.

I’m interested in exploring how others navigate the duality between being a person dispossessed by colonisation and simultaneously being one who benefits from dispossession and colonisation of First Nations peoples, of being grateful for opportunities afforded to me by the safety I now enjoy to not playing into the damaging narrative of the €œgrateful refugee€, of the delicate balance I’ve yet to master between resilience that sustains people with similar backgrounds and the aftermath of war and state/colonial violence that eats away at this resilience years after you’ve finally €œsettled€.”

We’re delighted Zerebar will be speaking at the Mary Lee Exchange #3. You can book your place here.