Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement
Proclaiming Our Roots (POR) began as an academic community-based research initiative documenting Afro-Indigenous identities and lived experiences through digital oral storytelling. Since its inception, Proclaiming Our Roots has grown into a grassroots social movement focused on self-determination, c...
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MDPI AG
2025-06-01
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| author | Ann Marie Beals Ciann L. Wilson Rachel Persaud |
| author_facet | Ann Marie Beals Ciann L. Wilson Rachel Persaud |
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| description | Proclaiming Our Roots (POR) began as an academic community-based research initiative documenting Afro-Indigenous identities and lived experiences through digital oral storytelling. Since its inception, Proclaiming Our Roots has grown into a grassroots social movement focused on self-determination, cultural reclamation, and resistance to colonial erasure. This paper explores Proclaiming Our Root’s evolution, from a research project to a grassroots social movement, analyzing how storytelling, relational accountability, and Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous governance have shaped its development. Drawing on Indigenous methodologies and grounded in Afro-Indigenous worldviews, we examine how POR mobilizes digital storytelling, community gatherings, and intergenerational dialog to give voice to Afro-Indigenous identity, build collective consciousness, and challenge dominant narratives that erase or marginalize Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous presence. Through a sharing circle involving Proclaiming Our Roots community members, advisory council members, and the research team, in this paper we identify key themes that reflect the movement’s transformative impact: Identity and Belonging, Storytelling as Decolonial Praxis, Healing, Spirituality and Collective Consciousness, and Resistance and Social Movement Building. We discuss how these themes illustrate Proclaiming Our Roots’ dual role as a site of knowledge production and political action, navigating tensions between institutional affiliation and community autonomy. By prioritizing Afro-Indigenous epistemologies and centering lived experience, POR demonstrates how academic research can be a foundation for long-term, relational, and community-led movement-building. In this paper, we want to contribute to broader discussions around the sustainability of grassroots movements, the role of storytelling in social change for Indigenous and Black Peoples, and the possibilities of decolonial knowledge production as epistemic justice. We offer a model for how academic research-initiated projects can remain accountable to the communities with whom we work, while actively participating in liberatory re-imaginings. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c6841d973c6746bbbc5911618a4bed53 |
| institution | Matheson Library |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
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| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-c6841d973c6746bbbc5911618a4bed532025-07-25T13:34:44ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442025-06-0116782810.3390/rel16070828Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a MovementAnn Marie Beals0Ciann L. Wilson1Rachel Persaud2Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON N2L 3C5, CanadaProclaiming Our Roots (POR) began as an academic community-based research initiative documenting Afro-Indigenous identities and lived experiences through digital oral storytelling. Since its inception, Proclaiming Our Roots has grown into a grassroots social movement focused on self-determination, cultural reclamation, and resistance to colonial erasure. This paper explores Proclaiming Our Root’s evolution, from a research project to a grassroots social movement, analyzing how storytelling, relational accountability, and Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous governance have shaped its development. Drawing on Indigenous methodologies and grounded in Afro-Indigenous worldviews, we examine how POR mobilizes digital storytelling, community gatherings, and intergenerational dialog to give voice to Afro-Indigenous identity, build collective consciousness, and challenge dominant narratives that erase or marginalize Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous presence. Through a sharing circle involving Proclaiming Our Roots community members, advisory council members, and the research team, in this paper we identify key themes that reflect the movement’s transformative impact: Identity and Belonging, Storytelling as Decolonial Praxis, Healing, Spirituality and Collective Consciousness, and Resistance and Social Movement Building. We discuss how these themes illustrate Proclaiming Our Roots’ dual role as a site of knowledge production and political action, navigating tensions between institutional affiliation and community autonomy. By prioritizing Afro-Indigenous epistemologies and centering lived experience, POR demonstrates how academic research can be a foundation for long-term, relational, and community-led movement-building. In this paper, we want to contribute to broader discussions around the sustainability of grassroots movements, the role of storytelling in social change for Indigenous and Black Peoples, and the possibilities of decolonial knowledge production as epistemic justice. We offer a model for how academic research-initiated projects can remain accountable to the communities with whom we work, while actively participating in liberatory re-imaginings.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/7/828Afro-Indigenousdigital oral storytellinggrassroots social movementsdecolonial praxis |
| spellingShingle | Ann Marie Beals Ciann L. Wilson Rachel Persaud Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement Religions Afro-Indigenous digital oral storytelling grassroots social movements decolonial praxis |
| title | Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement |
| title_full | Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement |
| title_fullStr | Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement |
| title_full_unstemmed | Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement |
| title_short | Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement |
| title_sort | proclaiming our roots afro indigenous identity resistance and the making of a movement |
| topic | Afro-Indigenous digital oral storytelling grassroots social movements decolonial praxis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/7/828 |
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