Oirad-Kalmyk activist nomto küükn has written a manifesto, a supremely important text in the context of the decolonial movement in russia. Written from the experience of living one's own otherness, it speaks honestly about the different stages of accepting one's identity, politicizes ethnicity, and offers not a closed, but multiple interpretations of what it might mean to be Oirad-Kalmyk. Entering into dialogue with texts by non-white feminists such as Audrey Lorde and Sarah Ahmed, from a position of Indigenous feminism, the manifesto of nomto küükn stretches connections across generations and contexts of feminist thought, continuing the work of politicizing emotion, difference, and identity. Doing so makes loving and accepting one's people an act of resistance to the colonial machines of erasure, oppression, and shame.

Read the full text on beda.media, and the fragments—in cards.

We prepared this text in collaboration with Oirad-Kalmyk activist movement Oirad Jisan.