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What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?
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 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.
298 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 24, 2021
21 people are currently reading
569 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 25, 2021
My favourite passage from this wise and beautifully written book: “In every moment, whether we like it or not and whether we know it or not, we are advancing values and influencing systems that will continue long past our lifetimes. These values and systems shape communities and lives that we will never see. The ways we live create and reinforce the foundation of life for future generations. We are responsible for how we write our values, what storylines we further and set forth—the world we choose to cultivate for the lives that follow ours. So how are we to live?”
This is the kind of book that you want to dip in and savour over a period of time, both because of the richness of the ideas and the quality of the writing. A wonderfully soul-nourishing read.
This is the kind of book that you want to dip in and savour over a period of time, both because of the richness of the ideas and the quality of the writing. A wonderfully soul-nourishing read.
March 12, 2022
it's hard to get an understanding of the scale of issues our dark egos and culture and climate change life and death and now maybe even the 6th world Extinction this book gives a very good roadmap for a number of directions some very thoughtful commentary some stories I'll need to reread and reread again because it's so much information and so different from my daily thought process. Totally worth the effort a very intense and intelligent book one that I'll keep on my bookshelf for future reference I give it five stars. Very important work.
March 6, 2023
This is an outstanding edited collection of contributions by indigenous writers offering an answer to the question "What kind of ancestor do you want to be?" The book is organized around six themes, like "relationship to place," "reckoning with historical trauma," "other-than-human ancestors," and more. Each section includes an opening poem, a range of essays, an interview, and a closing poem.
I started reading this book in November as part of a preparation for a meeting about indigenous issues and libraries. The "what kind of ancestor" framework was both grounding and fruitful in that context. I read the rest of the volume slowly over many months, and I could easily turn back to the beginning and do it all over again (except that my overdue notices are getting rather strident and I really need to return the library book!).
With a background of working with others on my institution's land acknowledgement statement, I thought a lot about "place" as I read. Winona LaDuke observes: "Privileged by the fossil fuel economy, which has amplified and intensified our disconnections, we are transient, we move. Few people live in the same place as their ancestors, and many more of us have historical amnesia" (143). Oh, yes. I have often mused on my lack of connection to the places of my ancestors, and which one I should choose if I want to enhance that sense of place. John Hausdoerffer explores a similar theme in his essay, "What Is Your Rice?" (p 124-129), ultimately reworking the question of "Where is my ancestral place?" to "What connects me to the health of the land while also connecting me to the love of my ancestors and to the hopes of my children's children?"
As I began Enrique Salmon's essay, "I Want the Earth to Know Me as a Friend" (p 166-171), I thought about one of the many shifts in perspective I experienced during the early and middle stages of the COVID-19 shutdown. Salmon writes about a course-long assignment for college students in which they have to select a physical space and then spend time there each week. They are prompted to notice what changes during that time, and how their observations change. This is an assignment many of us unknowingly completed during the earliest stage of the pandemic, when we seldom left home. I went on the same walk dozens of times, but began to see more and different things which each walk. I saw my own backyard quite differently. I was developing a different relationship to place that, in a small way, was perhaps more indigenous in outlook.
Near the end of the book, the interview with Ilarian Merculieff packs a big punch. I learned for the first time about the history of the Unangan people on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and am motivated to read his entire book Wisdom Keeper: One Man's Journey to Honor the Untold History of the Unangan People. I'll finish with a quote from his interview:
The ONLY thing that could be better about this book is the font size - it's really small and I required excellent light and glasses to read clearly!
I started reading this book in November as part of a preparation for a meeting about indigenous issues and libraries. The "what kind of ancestor" framework was both grounding and fruitful in that context. I read the rest of the volume slowly over many months, and I could easily turn back to the beginning and do it all over again (except that my overdue notices are getting rather strident and I really need to return the library book!).
With a background of working with others on my institution's land acknowledgement statement, I thought a lot about "place" as I read. Winona LaDuke observes: "Privileged by the fossil fuel economy, which has amplified and intensified our disconnections, we are transient, we move. Few people live in the same place as their ancestors, and many more of us have historical amnesia" (143). Oh, yes. I have often mused on my lack of connection to the places of my ancestors, and which one I should choose if I want to enhance that sense of place. John Hausdoerffer explores a similar theme in his essay, "What Is Your Rice?" (p 124-129), ultimately reworking the question of "Where is my ancestral place?" to "What connects me to the health of the land while also connecting me to the love of my ancestors and to the hopes of my children's children?"
As I began Enrique Salmon's essay, "I Want the Earth to Know Me as a Friend" (p 166-171), I thought about one of the many shifts in perspective I experienced during the early and middle stages of the COVID-19 shutdown. Salmon writes about a course-long assignment for college students in which they have to select a physical space and then spend time there each week. They are prompted to notice what changes during that time, and how their observations change. This is an assignment many of us unknowingly completed during the earliest stage of the pandemic, when we seldom left home. I went on the same walk dozens of times, but began to see more and different things which each walk. I saw my own backyard quite differently. I was developing a different relationship to place that, in a small way, was perhaps more indigenous in outlook.
Near the end of the book, the interview with Ilarian Merculieff packs a big punch. I learned for the first time about the history of the Unangan people on the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and am motivated to read his entire book Wisdom Keeper: One Man's Journey to Honor the Untold History of the Unangan People. I'll finish with a quote from his interview:
Your heart will guide you as to what you need to do - you yourself. Each person is unique, and each person has their own heart response. And a heart response is what is needed today, now. There is no more time to dawdle in the mind. We've got to become whole again, and in intimate connection with the Divine, and the only place that we can do this, the only place, is the heart. And the heart will never guide you wrong. It comes out of things like: This is a situation that requires compassion. This is a situation that requires love. You've got to love yourself. You've got to break free of all the traps that you've learned since the beginning of time - and time began when we left the present moment. It was human beings that created time. And, the only place that we can fine our connection to who we are is now here in the heart present in the moment." (250)
The ONLY thing that could be better about this book is the font size - it's really small and I required excellent light and glasses to read clearly!
August 27, 2024
“‘Nothing in this world is as soft and yielding as water / Yet for attacking the hard and strong none can triumph so easily / It is weak, yet none can equal it / It is soft, yet none can damage it / It is yielding, yet none can wear it away / Everyone knows that the soft overcomes the hard and the yielding triumphs over the rigid.’ Ten thousand years from now? The city will crumble into Lake Michigan. It is the way of water. It rises, it falls, seduced and repulsed by a lunar affair, attentive to cyclical rhythms of which we are only dimly aware. People think you must go to the mountains to encounter wildness. There is nothing wilder than water. Even cities bow before water.” (159)
February 26, 2022
I really appreciated the format of this book (essays, poetry, and interviews) as well as the variety of perspectives featured. It was really fascinating to hear a variety of thinkers answer the question (what kind of ancestor do you want to be?) but also HOW they even interpreted what the question was different. Loved it!
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December 22, 2022Contributors to What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? share wonderful insights into living on this planet with a light and loving touch. It’s an insightful and informative compilation of resources and ideas. The book is great for readers looking for positive approaches towards acknowledging that today’s present is tomorrow’s future.
December 30, 2023
So much wisdom from different communities about humanity's connection to nature and responsibility to care for the environment. In a time when environmental issues and concerns abound, this book calls us back to a simpler, more sustainable way of life. Very thought provoking and inspiring!
December 25, 2021
Such an amaxing book. It gives you a lot to reflect on and everyone who contributed to this book did an excellent job. Loved it!
Want to read
October 21, 2023Recommended by Beth Marcil and Kimberly Lee
January 27, 2024
A good read filled with important insights but somehow it took me a long time to get through it. Especially the words of ilarion merculieff resonated with me.
November 26, 2022
I may not read this book in the order the short stories and essays are organized in this book.
Tonight I start on pg.200 with seeds.
Tonight I start on pg.200 with seeds.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews