Voices of Decolonization at the Decolonial Feelin’ Symposium

The final series of “dECOlonial Feelin’” opened this weekend with a current that pulled attendees into deep and necessary conversations on art, ancestry, intellect, education and activism at Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism, Inc. in Frederiksted.

Against the backdrop of St. Croix, where the sea is both history and horizon, the Virgin Islands Studies Collective invited participants to consider decolonial thought not just as theory but as lived practice.

Hadiya Sewer, VISCO member and an Africana philosopher hailing from St. John, set the tone early, honoring those who paved the way. “I’m grateful for generations of Black feminists,” she shared, a sentiment echoed in the audience’s nods and affirmations. They spoke of the privilege of continuing the work — of answering the call of the ancestors and their experiences, of letting spirit shape scholarship. “Our political status is in a possessionless state,” they noted, confronting the historical violences that have shaped the Virgin Islands and other colonized lands.

In a moment that felt sacred, Sewer read from her first short story, “Interment,” publicly shared for the first time. Set to be included in VI Noire, the piece centered Mary Magdalene – not the biblical figure, but a reimagined Crucian ancestor inspired by her great-grandmother, Mary Joseph. “That sounded like love or obeah or both,” Sewer shared, offering a meditation on how spirituality disrupts and reclaims power from the narrative that demonizes ancient practices.