Southeast Asian Indigeneity

This panel brings together academics and local community activists to explore what indigeneity means within Southeast Asian contexts, including the US diaspora. Panelists will consider their own personal and conceptual understandings of what it means to be an indigenous person, both in terms of identity and self-determination, and the various ways indigeneity is manifested across Southeast Asian localities and circumstances.

Participants include:

• Stephen Acabado, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UCLA & Director of UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies
• Veronika Kusumaryati, Filmmaker and recent postdoctoral fellow at the Asian Studies Program at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University
• Phun H, Education and Advocacy Coordinator based in Greensboro, NC, who works with diverse immigrant communities towards greater self-sufficiency and community integration, and a recent graduate of UNC-CH
• Don Lam, volunteer and an indigenous rights advocate with the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF), supporting Khmer Krom living in South Vietnam, and with the Cambodian Cultural Center of NC (CCC of NC), helping to build relationships between the local Cambodian community, other immigrant/refugee communities, and local governments
• Sam Xiong (she/they), SEAC Village Youth Director in Charlotte, NC, working across Southeast Asian and Black youth and community in Charlotte, recent UNC Charlotte graduate, storyteller, artist and first generation, daughter of Hmong refugees of the Secret Vietnam War

Discussion will be moderated by Emil Keme (K’iche’ maya), Associate Professor of Spanish, UNC-CH.

Please direct all questions to the Southeast Asia Administrator, Dr. Becky Butler (becky.butler@unc.edu). This event will be conducted virtually over Zoom and is free and open to the public. Please register at this link.