Truth and Healing in California: Land, Education, and the Remembering, Restorying, Reclaiming Project

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

What becomes possible when unforgetting is led by Tribal communities and accountable to Indigenous homelands? This symposium explores the Remembering, Restorying, Reclaiming (RRR) project, a multi-campus, Indigenous-led initiative focused on transforming education and policy through participatory action research. Presenters share how RRR reimagines archival work, institutional accountability, and public memory while centering Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, and ceremonial care. Together, these presentations highlight how unforgetting serves as a practice of healing and self-determination, rather than relying solely on institutional reform. Grounded in love, relational accountability, and intergenerational responsibility, RRR invites a future where educational research yields something meaningful for Tribal communities: stories, presence, and power—aligning with the conference call to construct new visions of education grounded in justice and truth.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Chair

• Kehaulani Natsuko Vaughn, University of Utah

Papers

• Remembering in the Wake of Erasure: Reclaiming Research as an Act of Unforgetting - Kelly Leah Stewart, University of California, Los Angeles

• Restorying the Land: Reframing Institutional Responsibility on Native Homelands - Theresa J. Stewart-Ambo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Reclaiming the Archive: Reading Bureaucratic Silence through Indigenous Memory - Heather Ponchetti Daly, University of California - San Diego

• Weaving Futures Together: Building Research through Relational Accountability - Patricia D. Quijada Cerecer, University of California - Davis

• Healing on Our Own Terms: Returning Memory through Research and Ceremony - Magdalena Sunshine Serrano, Community Health Centers of the Central Coast

Session Organizer

• Kelly Leah Stewart, University of California, Los Angeles

Discussant

• Charles Sepulveda, The University of Utah