As de:border // migration justice collective and Missing Migrants Lesvos, we have respectively been accompanying and supporting families searching for loved ones killed or disappeared by borders through direct action and mutual aid, and engaging in advocacy to resist and pursue transformative justice and reparations for border deaths and disappearances. Together, we have been weaving the initial constellations of a transnational group of individuals, many part of groups or organisations, that respond to and resist border deaths and disappearances.
Our hope now is to bring together a small(er) group of us around our struggles and co-create an embodied co-learning space in which we can connect, exchange and co(un)learn from our experiences, practices and approaches, and find ways to support each other and enact our resistances together. A space to centre a critical, self-reflexive and self-accountable approach aligned with no-border politics and values, and oriented towards horizons of decolonial, abolitionist and transformative justice and repair––including healing justice praxes of collective grief.
We have recently received (partial) support from the Safe Passage Fund to co-organise an in-person convening for a group of 15-20 participants at the end of May 2025, alongside an online co(un)learning space that would meet seven times between March and June 2025.
We have a proposal for a programme of thematic sessions guided by care-fully prepared bundles of reading and listening materials, and with some potential invitees to co-hold the space, that we will share and discuss together with participant suggestions.
We propose that the first 5 online meetings will take place every second Friday, from 19:00 to 21:00 Greek time (EET), starting on March 14th, and then: March 28th, April 11th, April 25th, and May 9th. The two other online meetings will be scheduled after our in-person meeting, which is provisionally scheduled to take place in Athens, Greece between May 29th and June 2nd.
As part of this process, we would also like to invite everyone to co-create a zine that weaves together our reflections, learnings and longings.
If you, or someone in your group or organisation, are involved in relevant practice and might be interested in joining the space, we kindly invite you to:
1) fill out the call for expressions of interest; and
2) join a ‘discovery call’ by choosing a one-hour slot from this Calendly schedule, so that we can meet, explain our proposals, and discuss any questions or suggestions you may have.
We would be grateful if you could do this by 7 February 2025 the latest (let us know if you need more time by emailing info@debordercollective.org).