TPAN

Dars - درس - (Arabic for ‘lesson’) is a lending library and archive centred on Palestinian, SWANA and anti-colonial literature, based in Nipaluna/Hobart. Our collection includes historical and political works, essays, fiction, poetry, culinary, artistic, queer and feminist literature, and other works.

Dars was created to exist as a counterarchive in the hands of community. Counterarchives are spaces that provide an alternative to institutional information-keeping and dominant narratives. In this case, Dars is a response to the need for knowledge bases that are unapologetically political and that counter conventional colonial, imperial and Eurocentric narratives.

Dars is directly inspired by the work of Anna Emina – who generously provided the first books that began our growing library and archive – and her work with The Great Book Return in Naarm/Melbourne.

Dars exists in a time where the oppression of the Palestinian people extends beyond apartheid, occupation of land and the destruction of homes. It's in a time of genocide, where the destruction of Palestinians, their knowledge, culture and stories, threatens the total erasure of a people. Dars responds to this by preserving and sharing Palestinian stories, existence and resistance – even on a small scale, even a world away.

Follow us on Instagram @dars.library

The current location of Dars Library & Archive is at the Hobiennale Hub, 37 Hunter Street, Nipaluna/Hobart.

If you’d like to support the project, you can do so by:

1. Donating a book, publication or item. To ensure we don't end up with duplicates, and that donations align with the project, we ask that you fill out the donation form and one of the organisers of Dars will be in contact.
2. Donating funds to TPAN so we can purchase items for the library. Find donation details on our About page – just use “Dars” in the transaction description.

Coming soon!