River to the Sea
A reflection on solidarity with Palestine & our people's shared lineages of resisting/surviving colonization + imperialism and the US war machine - one in green ink depicting the Mekong and Lao landscapes, and one in red ink depicting the Gaza skyline and Mediterranean Sea.
River to the Sea, 2023
Linoprints on paper, 5"x7"
Dec, 2023
I'm Khmu, indigenous to what is now known as Northern Laos, and Iu Mien, indigenous to what is now known as Southern China. My ancestors survived many iterations of colonization (the Chinese empire, the Lao empire, the French empire, the Japanese empire, and most recently, the US empire) - my own maternal grandfather was drafted by the CIA as a child solider at the age of 15 along with many of his friends (some as young as 11 years old) to fight in guerrilla warfare in the jungles of Laos. I'm not Palestinian, but when I see the suffering of the Palestinian people, I feel the suffering of my people within them, echoing across time and global regions.
During the Secret War (1964-1975) the US dropped more than 2.5 million tons of ordnance on Laos (more than all the bombs dropped during WWII combined). Today, the US is responsible for aiding and supplying the Israeli government with weapons + bombs responsible for the destruction in Palestine equivalent to 2 nuclear bombs. The US war machine's insidious reach spans across time and borders, passing throughout generations, - our liberation is bound to one another. From Palestine to the Mekong, away with all US bombs!