#i am Métis but i am white so i try to hold back to make room for the persons of colour native to north america to speak

[this-is-my-main-i-follow-from]

You don't need all the symptoms to struggle. You don't need the worst symptoms to struggle. You don't need the worst of the symptoms you have to struggle. You don't need to have constant symptoms to struggle.

Your struggles are real.

(At the same time, you should let them speak when it is relevant to them.)

[skruffie]

thoughts on ancestor work

I don’t post a lot of spiritual stuff on here but I have a LOT of thoughts and feelings when it comes to genealogy and ancestor work. There’s a lot of white people who are hesitant to really look deep into their ancestry, especially if they’re here in the USA because, well. (WAVES HANDS AT ALL OF AMERICAN HISTORY)

That’s understandable! When I was starting genealogy even before I got back into spirituality I came into it knowing that I was going to find some rough information. I have ancestors that landed on this continent in the 1600 and 1700s. I know there’s tons of skeletons in the closet. However... this is where things get too narrowly defined and it’s becoming a pet peeve when I see it happen online: you will have ancestors that committed atrocities but you will also have ancestors that did not. You cannot paint all of your european ancestors with a broad villain brush.

I have Union ancestors, Confederate ancestors, ancestors who enslaved others, ancestors who were violently colonized and/or displaced, Salem witch trial accuser ancestors, recent immigrant ancestors (1800s ish), farmer ancestors, labor ancestors, ancestors who worked daily with the founding fathers, and probably so much more. Part of ancestor work is holding all of that and doing better in this lifetime as you are.

For example, I don’t forgive my slaver ancestors because that forgiveness is not mine to give. What I do now as their living descendant is that I make sure that I don’t perpetuate racism and learn about how I can destroy the structures of systemic racism in order to undo that harmful legacy. Acting in the present is a form of ancestor work. Some people even believe that the spirit can still continue to evolve after death, so for like... queer people, they may look at their ancestors and go “there is no way in hell that they’ll accept me” but have you ever considered that you have queer ancestors? You may not know who they are by name but they know you.

Some people also will only work with ancestors who will help them become the best possible version of themselves. For me, I think that would look like trying to reconnect with my Indigenous roots but not calling upon George Washington Davis for anything. Or, alternatively, invoking GWD specifically to rebel against everything that he believed to demonstrate that the choices he made in his lifetime were violent and harmful, and that as his descendant I’m trying to do what I can to break that cycle. See what I can do, George? See how I know your legacy and know everything that you believed in and fought for? I believe that it’s bullshit and I refuse to stand for it.

What got me on this tangent is someone I follow was talking about how she doesn’t do ancestor work because a lot of her family trauma is meant to be worked out through therapy. That’s valid, and also I believe that therapy can function as a form of ancestor work. You know how often I think about the horrors that my ancestors went through and how they had no access to therapy? I honor them by taking care of my mental health now, as I am as their descendant.

I eat with my ancestors. I invite them to taste flavors they didn’t have in their lifetimes. I invite them to sit with me when I breathe if I’m having a bad day so they could see that their descendant has resources available to cope with trauma. I invite them in to show that their legacy may not be what they expected but is trying constantly to make their own little world and the world around them better. I invite my Yurok and Métis ancestors specifically into my circle to show them that it’s okay and that I’m safe. That they’re safe with me now. That I won’t let anyone hurt them again.