Conversations with the Assembly #3: Mohit Shelare

"Dust in capitalist ignation is the obsession with the act of cleaning and marginalising. It's obligatory in archaeology to clean the dust to see the past. So dust as a material or condition—it's a very complex and dense idea for me. So my conception of dust comes from the caste system and thinking about the politics of purity. And I see dirt, waste, remains, and excrement as the 'dust' that is produced by the hegemonic system. And I like to argue that we have to see the waste not only as a crisis of Earth's ecology, but as an ecology of politics. And it's important to think about the history of waste in relation to our social and political condition. It's only Dalit thinkers and philosophers who are writing books and also cleaning gutters. Toxicity has already created a caste in the future. So my idea of prophecy is not in the future but it's in the past that has not happened yet."

Conversations with the Assembly is a podcast produced by Cristian Tablazon in conversation with the inaugural cohort of the Regional Assembly. Foregrounding personal and networked histories, their distinct voices, and the imbrications of their diverse practices with the nuances of identity, locality, and place, the relations of production, and the broader geopolitical life, each episode will amplify, challenge, and entwine the many threads of discourse and dialogue that unfold during the Regional Assembly.

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The Regional Assembly is a Regional Arts Australia program delivered through the Regional Arts Fund. The Regional Arts Fund supports cultural development in regional, remote and rural communities in Australia. The program is managed by Regional Arts Australia on behalf of the Australian Government.