Ancestral Ground

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.

FIRST EDITION IS LIVE!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Ancestral Ground – a vibrant, multi-genre collection of poetry, essays, speculative fiction, visual art, interviews, practices, and songs, weaving together the many ways people are engaging at the intersection of ancestral recovery and anti-racism work. Think of this space as a digital apothecary: a place to learn and unlearn, grapple and be inspired, find roadmaps and medicine as we heal from the erasures of whiteness and harms of white supremacy, reclaim the wisdom, beauty, and power of our ancestral lineages, and build a more just and regenerative future together.

We invite you to take your time with these offerings, let them work on and change you, and bring the inquiry into community using our Dialogue & Practice Guide – because none of us is meant to make this journey alone!  You will find all of the featured pieces living in each of the thematic sections on the site. Deep gratitude for our ancestors and all the contributors who have made this edition come alive.

Ancestral Ground: Dialogue & Practice Guide
Download Community Guide

Virtual Launch Event

Inaugural Edition

Anti-Racism & Solidarity

Pieces by: David Dean, Janet Carter, Julie Wolk, J. Miakoda Taylor, Chris Crass, Catalyst Project, Tina Jeanette Szpicek, Kaia Svien, Leah Jo Carnine and Caroline Picker, Jennifer Jupiter, Echo & Tina

Immigration & Assimilation

Pieces by: Liza J. Rankow, Anna Blackshaw, Felicia Gustin, Monica Berini, Denise Alden, MJ Penizotto

Place, Ecology & Homelands

Pieces by: Lucy Waechter Webb, Lydia Breunig, Osprey Orielle Lake, Stevie Guiol-Moss, Dani Burlison, Erin Langley, Nora Murphy, Raven Hinojosa

Healing Ancestral Trauma

Pieces by: Susan Raffo, Kari Points, Louise Dunlap, iusti remer-thamert, Charlotzi Sáenz, Steve Jensen, Kelsey Lavoie, Joseph B. Shumway, kay zeiss, Julia Rhodes Davis, caroline kaufmann, Marisa Handler, Mel Baiser

Practices & Portals of Connection

Pieces by: Kusum Crimmel, Atava Garcia Swiecicki, Lauren Gucik, Re-calling our Ancestors, Hilary Giovale, Ream, Maija Danilova West, Kari Points, Jacks McNamara, Meg Yardley, Roan Coughtry and Wren Willsea

Reckoning & Reparations

Pieces by: Mary Watkins, Juliette Beck, Michelle Puckett, Amanda K. Gross, Pegi Eyers, Geneva Toland & Zoë Fay-Stindt, Justine Epstein, Lucy Waechter Webb, Liza J. Rankow, Karen Brown, Cindy Waszak Geary

Tending to Future Lineage

Lynn Burnett in conversation with Jason Biehl, Jeremiah Redwood and Menno
Schwartz

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?

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