Ancestral Ground
regenerative, just futures are possible
Welcome to Ancestral Ground!
We are so glad you found this project, dedicated to lifting up diverse practices of ancestral reconnection with an explicit anti-racist and liberatory lens, undertaken by U.S. practitioners of European descent. A growing movement of powerful work is happening across the country – both newly emerging and longstanding – that bridges white anti-racism with ancestral recovery.
Ancestral Ground aims to highlight the bridges between the worlds of Euro-descended ancestral reconnection and the political, ecological, cultural and spiritual dimensions of anti-racism. This project provides a virtual community space to grow perspectives, expressions and connections within this vibrant landscape.
What does ancestral reconnection work have to do with anti-racism?
What does a racial justice lens bring to ancestral recovery work?
We at Ancestral Ground believe that regenerative, just futures are possible
We believe that a restorative connection to ancestry can support white people to engage in the work of repair with greater humility, humanity, vision and accountability. Under the myth and systems of white supremacy, profound violence is being committed against all our kin and the fabric of life. To resist and transform this violence, we are called to get to the roots of the long war on people and nature. There is an urgent need for white-identified people to collectively heal the erasures, harms, lies and ruptures of white supremacy that attempt to separate us from the potential of mutiracial class struggle, as well as the interconnected reality of all beings on Earth.
We believe a cultural resistance movement is essential to our collective survival. Culture shapes our sense of what is possible—it is through our stories, art, rituals, and relationships that we remember how to belong, how to resist, and how to reimagine a future rooted in justice and care for all beings. Ancestral Ground aims to amplify and fortify this cultural movement as a site for collective learning, remembering, and liberation.
What healing is ours to do, now?
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
As a resource hub for this proliferating movement we invite submissions in all genres oriented towards healing intergenerational trauma, engaging in reparations, transforming extractive and supremacist ways of being, reclaiming the liberatory political traditions of our ancestors and taking anti-racist action rooted in love. This includes poetry, essays, creative nonfiction, speculative fiction, genealogical excavation, visual arts, music, theater and video. Previously published and original pieces are welcome.
Our task is to shake the amnesia…Our task is to honor our ancestors, even those who caved beneath the weight of systematic destruction and became conquerors themselves.
– Lyla June Johnston, The Vast and Beautiful World of Indigenous Europe