The Asian American diaspora is a far-reaching and global phenomenon, and much of the art and literature associated with it rightfully struggles with the idea of being "too foreign for America, too American for the homeland." Understandings of a diasporic Asian American identity have tended to focus on the events that displaced us or our elders from our home communities, as well as the ongoing oppression that Asian Americans face under white supremacy. Many of us may embrace our in-between status as a kind of "borderlands" identity that transcends national or cultural identification, never fully belonging to any of the spaces we inhabit.

As we come to terms with not truly feeling at home on any land, however, we must still acknowledge the reality that we are settled on Indigenous land. This website, while a work in progress, tells you exactly whose land you are living on.

Quechua scholar Sandy Grande criticizes the way that "liminal spaces" and "border identities" are becoming more prevalent in activism and academia, to the detriment of Indigenous identities. She comments that "the undercurrent of fluidity and sense of displacedness" that permeates these conceptions of diasporic identity "runs contrary to American Indian sensibilities of connection to place, land, and the Earth itself… as the physical and metaphysical borders of the postmodern world become increasingly fluid, the desire of American Indian communities to protect geographic borders and employ 'essentialist' tactics also increases."

"As we consider the politics of exile," writes Amazigh activist Nuunja Kahina, "we must step outside ourselves to question: where are we in exile, and on whose backs?"