Settler culture must write its own place-stories rather than adopting Indigenous ones wholesale

Evidence

Perhaps this story could be a user’s manual for understanding how we become people of corn. The Popul Vuh, the Mayan sacred text in which this story is contained, is perceived as more than just a chronicle. As David Suzuki notes in The Wisdom of the Elders, the Mayan stories are understood as an ilbal—a precious seeing instrument, or lens, with which to view our sacred relationships. He suggests that such stories may offer us a corrective lens. But while our indigenous stories are rich in wisdom, and we need to hear them, I do not advocate their wholesale appropriation. As the world changes, an immigrant culture must write its own new stories of relationship to place—a new ilbal, but tempered by the wisdom of those who were old on this land long before we came. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1257

Categorization

• XREF: Directly bridges to the settler-colonial critique course thread and the earlier claim that non-Indigenous settlers can learn reciprocity without appropriation. — connects to: Cultural origin connections must be actively recreated rather than inherited naturally
• SEED: The idea of a ‘new ilbal’ for immigrant culture is a strong angle for an essay on what responsible place-storytelling by settlers looks like.

Broader Connections

• Cultural origin connections must be actively recreated rather than inherited naturally #expands (0.80)