Ancestral Seeding: Indigenous Stories as Dispersals for Sovereignty, Self-determination and Relational Wellbeing

• In Event: Ancestral Prolepsis: Cultivating Relational Learning with Land and Generations for Indigenous and Planetary Futures

Abstract

Introduction & Objectives
This story praises the brilliance of Indigenous knowledge systems. We look to stories as living artifacts that ancestors disperse to future generations. Specifically, this piece uplifts how traditional story themes and teachings arise in everyday lived stories. The transferring of knowledge across stories teaches us how to tend and nurture stories we hold and share—especially for the wellbeing of young and future generations of both humans and more than human beings.

Theoretical Framework
In addition to the data and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples themselves, the birth of this work can largely be drawn back to Archibald’s seminal piece Indigenous storywork (2008), along with many other Indigenous scholars who have shared the understanding of stories as core to Indigenous knowledge systems (Brayboy, 2005; Simpson, L.B. & Manitowabi, E., 2013; Smith, 2021; Marin, A., Bang., M., 2015). Building with these works we see stories as gifts that proleptically share knowledge; grounding in Indigenous values and teachings and reaching for sovereign futurities.

Methods
This story takes place within an intergenerational, urban Indigenous land-based learning environment known as Indigenous STEAM. Storywork (Archibald, 2008) is foundational to ISTEAM as stories open and close each day of the program. In the summer of 2024 community co-designers diversified the story ecology by moving from featuring only traditional stories (those shared across many generations, often traversing hundreds to thousands of years), to community facilitators sharing stories of their lives that are presently being shaped.
This paper looks closely at the implementation of those design decisions. We analyze around 10 hours of audio-video data during opening circles. Employing micro-ethnographic, grounded theory methods, beginning with ethnographic field notes (Erickson, 2006) and analytic memos (Emerson, 2011) that gave rise to an inductive codebook. Through this process, traditional story themes and values emerged across lived stories, creating this paper’s focus.

Results
Preliminary findings illustrate ways in which ancestral teachings carry through to not only traditional stories, but also lived stories. Throughout the entire ecology of stories shared in opening circles, knowledge of how to navigate the world while being rooted in Indigenous ontologies, axiologies, and epistemologies are dispersed. The teachings shared values of how to live in the world such as 1) relationality—with more than humans and other humans—as well as 2) change, transformation, and adaptability, and 3) how to navigate conflict, harm, and struggles. Additionally, we saw ways in which traditional story genres also reemerged through community members’ own stories (i.e as trickster stories, creation stories, etc.). Following the flow across the two week program we see how the teachings and genres emerge and weave together to cultivate healthful relationality and socio-ecological, collective wellbeing.

Discussion / Significance
We can turn to this phenomenon to hold the power of storytelling. The work demonstrates how our axiologies, ontologies and epistemologies are carried through stories across generations, supporting sovereignty, self-determination and wellbeing. Holding these forms of ancestral prolepsis with the weight it carries means understanding the significant roles our stories—in all forms—play in our pedagogies and world building.

Authors

• Cecelia Hoffman, Northwestern College

• Megan Bang, Northwestern University