Open Collections

Arias, Krista

University of British Columbia

How is it possible for diasporic Indigenous women and mothers, to remember, recover and restory what has been lost in the last five hundred years of colonization? How can mothers who have been displaced from land, language, and culture as a result of colonization participate in cultural restoration, their own and that of the collective. How is Trauma involved, relied on, perpetuated, and resolved in order to either maintain or escape patterns of fight, flight and/or paralysis? As a Xicana Indígena mother, existing in the cycle of birth and death, always becoming ancestor, I have searched for an accurate story to pass on to my children, a story that is true but that is also a truth-telling. I address and explore problems of authentic identity – de- Indianization, appropriation and misappropriation, and hemispheric Indigeneity in order to set up the initial problem. I then move on to consider historical trauma, trauma theory, Indigenous healing practices and paradigms as well as resonant western ones. I then consider histories, issues, and ceremonies related to Indigenous birth and mothering. This project is a Ceremony of restoration, of decoding remnants, of generative gestures, and stitching stories. It offers guiding principles and ceremonial protocols that allow for the product of ceremony, vision, to emerge. A large part of this dissertation consists of imaginal, dream-crafted, poietic, and performative output and it is supplemented with an exhibition and a published collection of poetry. I share my vision, a personal transformation and an offering, a generative gesture of In Xochitl In Cuicatl – poetry and prayer that honors Indigenous holistic dualism as a way forward through trauma . . . into freedom.

Text; Moving Image

2021-08-26

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/79465

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/