This week on BlackChat, we sat down with Dr. OmiSoore Dryden. Long time friend of !Kona, "adopted" auntie of Morgan, Dr. Dryden is the James R. Johnston Chair in Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine and an associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research topics include, but are not limited to; Black Health Equity, Black Feminist/Black Queer Diasporic Analytics, Anti-black racism and Health Outcomes, and Blood Donation Systems. OmiSoore is also a bad-ass femme whose academic activism continues to be a vital tool in Black liberation.

In editing, we decided to let this episode flow free form with no music and minimal editing for volume control. So grab a snack and join us as we munch on Chinese food, and discuss in-depth the intersecting existence of Black and Indigenous people on Turtle Island. Are Black people settlers? Allies? What are our roles as people of African descent in dissolving the colonial apocalypse we live in alongside Indigenous peoples?

On a panel this past Tuesday, Dr. Dryden said something on the lines of (and I'm sorry for paraphrasing), "[Genocide did not wipe out Indigenous people, despite genocidal acts still occurring to this day. Slavery Did not wipe out Black people, despite systems of slavery still existing today.]"

This "quote" leaves us to further think about how coalition-building between Indigenous and Black people can, may and will be possible.

OmiSoore's website: https://omisooredryden.com/

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