we are our ancestors.
their stories, wounds, and wisdoms continue to evolve and unravel through our own present day being. our lives and our families are both keepers of memory through recalling the past, but also through documenting our OWN lives and stories. we are continuations of the past and bridges to the future. evolutions and reflections of our ancestral achetypes and intergenerational memories.
this is the part of our HUB that is dedicated to unveiling these family, cultural, and lineage wisdoms, practices, and memories by actually sharing them.
so often, these are ways and memories that are so common in our family we don’t even notice them or recognize the depth of their secrets and value. they are things we grew up with, things we heard in passing from an aunty or grandparent, things our mother has told us over and over and over again, things we eat every day in our kitchen or that we prepare every time a new baby is born or someone dies or someone gets the flu. they are prayers our teta’s whisper every night, songs they sang us when we were little, or new iterations of a recipe our grandma taught us that changed when we moved cities or countries and new ingredients had to make do.
we want to capture these memories, these most colloquial and intimate ways and wisdoms.
alongside the deeper reflections of re-membrance we welcome in contributions to the HUB, we also would like to honor bits and pieces of memory and family practice, of oral histories and lineages in a way that is accessible, detailed, and easy to chime in on, which is why we designed the “story re-collection” part of our site.
Below, you will see a list of themes where you can input relevant re-collections of story and knowledge from your own life and lineage. take a moment to consider the themes intentionally, reflect, and document the pieces you recall from your own upbringing or process of remembrance.
over time, we will archive these ancestral memories and find ways to compile them here on our HUB (if you grant us permission). as a community, we can study the themes, patterns, and wisdoms embedded within. we can re-member ourselves more deeply, find intersection, missing pieces, and fuller cohesion through collectivizing the nuances and details of our personal experiences, while ensuring that the daily expressions of our communal ancestral wisdoms and livelihoods continue to be honored, built on, and preserved forward.
we understand the power in listening more deeply to the the patterns, symbols, and subtleties inside our personal and collective experiences.
we know that many wisdoms we deem “lost” or forgotten live here, and that they offer precious insights into our original wisdoms, ancient memory, and daily resiliences. profound hints into who we are, have been, and would like to become.
thank you for re-membering with us.
**please note: if you would like to share for archival purposes but not for your sharing to go out publicly beyond our private SWANA collective, that is also an option we respect and honor. there is a place for you to indicate this in the re-collection form. as for where you can see what others have submitted, they will be woven into the HUB site alongside the rest of our archival material.