As we face an ever-more-fragmented world, What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? demands a return to the force of lineage—to spiritual, social, and ecological connections across time. It sparks a myriad of ageless-yet-urgent questions: How will I be remembered? What traditions do I want to continue? What cycles do I want to break? What new systems do I want to initiate for those yet-to-be-born? How do we endure? Published in association with the Center for Humans and Nature and interweaving essays, interviews, and poetry, this book brings together a thoughtful community of Indigenous and other voices—including Linda Hogan, Wendell Berry, Winona LaDuke, Vandana Shiva, Robin Kimmerer, and Wes Jackson—to explore what we want to give to our descendants. It is an offering to teachers who have come before and to those who will follow, a tool for healing our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with our most powerful ancestors—the lands and waters that give and sustain all life.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780226777436
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 05-28-2021
Pages: 248
Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)
About the Author
John Hausdoerffer is a fellow for the Center for Humans and Nature as well as dean of the School of Environment & Sustainability at Western State Colorado University. He is the author of Catlin’s Lament: Indians, Manifest Destiny, and the Ethics of Nature and editor of Aaron Abeyta’s Letters from the Headwaters. For more information, visit www.jhausdoerffer.com. He lives in Gunnison, CO. Brooke Parry Hecht is president of the Center for Humans and Nature. Melissa K. Nelson (Anishinaabe/Métis [Turtle Mountain Chippewa]) is professor of Indigenous sustainability at Arizona State University and president of the Cultural Conservancy, a Native-led Indigenous rights organization. Most recently, she is coeditor of Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learning from Indigenous Practices for Environmental Sustainability. Katherine Kassouf Cummings serves as managing editor at the Center for Humans and Nature and leads Questions for a Resilient Future.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Poem: Unsigned Letter to a Human in the 21st Century Jamaal May
I. Embedded: Our ancestral responsibility is deeply rooted in a multigenerational relationship to place.
a. Poem: Great Granddaddy Taiyon Coleman
b. Essays:
i. Ancestor of Fire Aaron A. Abeyta
ii. Grounded Aubrey Streit Krug
iii. My Home / It’s Called the Darkest Wild Sean Prentiss c. Interview: Wendell Berry Leah Bayens
d. Poem: To the Children of the 21st Century Frances H. Kakugawa
II. Reckoning: Reckoning with ancestors causing and ancestors enduring historical trauma.
a. Poem: Forgiveness? Shannon Gibney
b. Essays:
i. Sister’s Stories Eryn Wise
ii. Of Land and Legacy Lindsay Lunsford
iii. Cheddar Man Brooke Williams
iv. Formidable Kathleen Dean Moore c. Interview: Caleen Sisk Brooke Parry Hecht and Toby McLeod
d. Poem: Promises, Promises Frances H. Kakugawa
III. Healing: Enhancing some ancestral cycles while breaking others.
a. Poem: To Future Kin Brian Calvert
b. Essays:
i. Moving with the Rhythm of Life Katherine Kassouf Cummings
ii. (A Korowai) For When You Are Lost Manea Sweeney
iii. To Hope of Becoming Ancestors Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Julianne Warren c. Interview: Camille T. Dungy and Crystal Williams
d. Poem: Yes I Will Frances H. Kakugawa
IV. Interwoven: Our descendants will know the kind of ancestor we are by reading the lands and waters where we lived.
a. Poem: Alive in This Century Leora Gansworth
b. Essays:
i. What Is Your Rice? John Hausdoerffer
ii. Restoring Indigenous Mindfulness within the Commons of Human Consciousness Jack Loeffler
iii. Reading Records with Estella Leopold Curt Meine
iv. How to Be Better Ancestors Winona LaDuke c. Interview: Wes Jackson John Hausdoerffer and Julianne Lutz Warren
d. Poem: Omoiyare Frances H. Kakugawa
V. Earthly: Other-than-human beings are our ancestors, too.
a. Poem: LEAF Elizabeth Herron
b. Essays:
i. The City Bleeds Out (Reflections on Lake Michigan) Gavin Van Horn
ii. I Want the Earth to Know Me as a Friend Enrique Salmón
iii. The Apple Tree Peter Forbes
iv. Humus Catroina Sandilands
v. Building Good Soil Robin Kimmerer c. Interview: Vandana Shiva John Hausdoerffer
d. Poem: Your Inheritance Frances H. Kakugawa
VI. Seventh Fire
a. Poem: Time Traveler Lyla June Johnston
b. Essays:
i. Seeds Native Youth Guardians of the Waters 2017 Participants and Nicola Wagenberg
ii. Onëö’ (Word for Corn in Seneca) Kaylena Bray
iii. Landing Oscar Guttierez
iv. Regenerative Melissa K. Nelson
v. Nourishing Rowen White
vi. Light Rachel Wolfgramm and Chellie Spiller c. Interview: Ilarion Merculieff Brooke Parry Hecht
d. Poem: Lost in the Milky Way Linda Hogan
Acknowledgments Notes About the Contributors Index