Institute of Contemporary Art Miami ICA Miami

Dreams, visitations and possessions are said to be ways for the dead to communicate with the living. The dead, the ancestors, and the environment with which they are connected. Often they speak of origin stories and the beginning of the world. In some accounts, they speak of crops, of fate, and of the future. But the dead also speak of violence, of extraction, of plunder. And sometimes, they speak of impending disaster.

Why are both dreams and the voice of the dead so important for communities fighting colonial violence across the world? What can be the role of the dead, and their appearances, within environmental struggles?

In the context of ongoing struggles against extractivism, ecocide, and colonial violence, this project will focus on dreams, visitations, visions, spirit-possession, and similar moments of communication between the living, the dead, and the non-living. Participants will collectively discuss the importance of the dead and the spirit world for practices of care and making kin, and the reasons why indigenous peoples from across the world say that white people don’t know how to dream; we will look into the multiple ways in which the dead come to speak of environments and the evidentiary status of their appearances.

Please download the full syllabus in the Resources section of this page.