Proclaiming Our Roots: Afro-Indigenous Identity, Resistance, and the Making of a Movement

Abstract

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.

1. Introduction

Afro-Indigenous Peoples on Turtle Island have long engaged in struggles for self-determination in resisting identity erasure, racial hierarchies, and colonial violence (Beals and Wilson 2020; Betasamosake Simpson 2017). While much scholarship has examined Black and Indigenous resistance movements separately, few studies have centered the lived experiences of Afro-Indigenous Peoples across Northern Turtle Island within these broader struggles (Beals and Wilson 2020; Mills-Proctor 2010). This erasure extends beyond academia, shaping how Afro-Indigenous histories and political movements are excluded from dominant narratives of sovereignty and liberation.

Proclaiming Our Roots (POR) emerged in response to these gaps, initially as a research initiative documenting Afro-Indigenous identity through digital oral storytelling. Over time, POR evolved beyond academic research into a community-driven movement advocating for self-determination, visibility, and cultural reclamation. In this paper, we examine how and why this transition is occurring. Drawing on POR community narratives and thematic analysis grounded in relational accountability, we explore how Proclaiming Our Roots engages with Black nationalist thought, Indigenous sovereignty movements, and anti-colonial activism. This engagement extends beyond theoretical discussion; it embodies an Afro-Indigenous social movement committed to reclaiming histories, transforming present realities, and actively shaping decolonial futures.

2. Who We Are

2.1. Proclaiming Our Roots—Organizational Background

Proclaiming Our Roots (POR), initially developed as an academic research initiative under the leadership of Dr. Ciann L. Wilson and Denise Baldwin, was designed to document, affirm, and empower Afro-Indigenous Peoples across Northern Turtle Island (the colonial settler nation-state known as Canada) (Beals and Wilson 2020). Funded through the original SSHRC Insight Development Grant in 2017, the project has transitioned both organically and intentionally from an institutional research project into a grassroots social movement. This evolution has been guided by the priorities and experiences of community members, alongside an Afro-Indigenous Advisory Council, Elders, knowledge carriers, allied researchers, and a diverse research team. Together, we work to ensure that Proclaiming Our Roots remains grounded in relational accountability, responsive to Afro-Indigenous knowledge systems, and committed to community-defined goals (Beals and Wilson 2020).

In addressing the systemic exclusion of Afro-Indigenous experiences from mainstream Canadian scholarship, Proclaiming Our Roots explicitly disrupts colonial erasure by creating relational and accountable spaces for Afro-Indigenous storytelling, identity affirmation in the Canadian settler nation-state, and community mobilization. Despite the longstanding connections between Black and Indigenous communities, shaped by shared experiences of colonization, dispossession, and resistance, these intersecting histories have remained largely invisible in mainstream Canadian society. POR actively challenges this invisibility through national and international networks that amplify Afro-Indigenous perspectives, histories, and orative traditions.

In this section, we provide an overview of Proclaiming Our Roots as a broader community-led initiative grounded in relational, decolonial practices. While this context is important for understanding the spirit and values guiding the work, the specific research methods used for this paper, including data collection, analysis, and ethical considerations, are detailed in the Methodology section below. With that, Proclaiming Our Roots research approach centers community-driven, arts-based methods, including digital oral storytelling, community mapping, semi-structured interviews, sharing circles, and community gatherings across diverse territories such as Tkarón:to (Toronto), Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth), Wawiiahtanan Ziibii (Windsor), Misâskwatôminihk (Saskatoon), Wînipêk (Winnipeg), and the Six Nations of the Grand River. The project explicitly avoids extractive research practices by ensuring community members inform all stages of research, decision-making, and dissemination, maintaining a reciprocal and ethically engaged approach grounded in Afro-Indigenous epistemologies.

The project’s evolution beyond academia into grassroots organizing reflects broader discussions of sustainability and the transformative potential of community-driven research and work. Fundamentally, this paper is an exploration of how POR has expanded from just another institutional research project into a grassroots social movement, engaging with Afro-Indigenous self-determination, decolonial knowledge production, and movement sustainability. The Proclaiming Our Roots journey shows us how institutional research can organically and intentionally evolve into community-driven activism and collective resistance, guided by relational accountability and intersectional identity reclamation.

2.2. Overview

Community-based research and grassroots activism may overlap but remain distinct, each with different approaches, goals, and ways of defining success (Tuhiwai Smith 1999; Wilson 2008). However, Proclaiming Our Roots demonstrates how research can evolve into grassroots mobilization when it is led by the voices, priorities, and relational knowledge of diverse communities (Tuhiwai Smith 2012). Originally designed to document and affirm Afro-Indigenous identity in Canada through digital oral storytelling, POR has since expanded beyond the original vision imagined for this project, transforming into a movement for Afro-Indigenous self-determination, visibility, resistance, and healing. This shift reflects the broader role of community-driven knowledge production and mobilization as not just an intellectual exercise or the outputs of a narrowly defined research project, but as a form of activism in and of itself, that actively challenges systemic erasure and racial–colonial hierarchies (Delgado and Stefancic 2017).

Unlike many research projects that remain confined within academic institutions, Proclaiming Our Roots has taken on a life of its own, propelled by the needs and agency of its community members. Afro-Indigenous community members have engaged with POR not as “research subjects,” in a top-down knowledge extraction exercise, but as Elders, knowledge holders, artists, educators, organizers, and leaders, who have utilized the project as a platform for sharing their talents and artistry, their knowledge of their history, their community organizing and advocacy for social change, and their cultural reclamation (Beals and Wilson 2020; Hill Collins 2000; Lorde 1984; Wilson 2008). This process demonstrated within POR reflects a larger pattern in social movement formation, where knowledge production, political discourse, and documentation serve as the means for mobilization and sustained collective action (Ganz 2010a; McAdam et al. 2001).

Proclaiming Our Roots also reflects long-standing traditions of critical collective consciousness raising in social movements. Critical consciousness—the process of recognizing and naming structures of oppression and learning how to action against them—has been central to movements for Black self-determination, Indigenous sovereignty, and decolonial resistance (Betasamosake Simpson 2017; Freire 1970; Hill Collins 2000). For Black feminist scholars, such as Hill Collins (2000), critical consciousness is not only about naming oppression but also reclaiming knowledge and self-definition as tools of resistance. Similarly, Betasamosake Simpson (2017) argues that Indigenous resurgence must go beyond critique, emphasizing land-based relationships, governance, and cultural practices as necessary acts of decolonization.

Moreover, this process is not separate from spirituality and healing but is intertwined with an understanding of how Afro-Indigenous Peoples navigate in a colonial settler nation-state (Betasamosake Simpson 2017; King 2019). Afro-Indigenous identity reclamation is not only about personal affirmation; it is also about understanding the colonial forces that have sought and seek to erase Afro-Indigenous presence. It is about understanding the complex histories that directly connect these communities to land and place, actively resisting these destabilizing colonial forces (Beals and Wilson 2020). Within Proclaiming Our Roots, this practice is embedded in the action of storytelling and oral tradition, and where self-definition and affirmation can be acts of resistance, collectivist struggles, and tools for shaping the future.

2.3. Storytelling as a Social Movement Strategy

The role of storytelling in movement-building is well documented across social movements globally (Ganz 2010b; Kovach 2021). Narratives serve as more than just methods of knowledge and history transmission, as they are also political tools that ground people in a sound sense of who they are, and disrupt dominant ideologies, frame collective struggles, and mobilize action. Within Afro-Indigenous traditions, oral storytelling is not only a means of preserving history, but a way of asserting self-determination and affirmation in the face of systemic erasure of the histories and realities of these communities (Betasamosake Simpson 2017; Kovach 2021). POR aligns with this tradition, using digital oral storytelling as a mechanism for mobilization and resistance, ensuring that Afro-Indigenous histories and identities are not only documented but actively used to challenge current colonial ideas about Indigeneity.

Unlike research projects that operate as static repositories of extracted knowledge, POR has developed a publicly accessible digital storytelling platform where community members can engage with these videos and their own histories and contribute to an ongoing movement for Afro-Indigenous visibility. This knowledge-sharing framework ensures that POR’s work is not confined to academic spaces but continues to shape public discourse, influence activism and identity-affirmation, and provide a foundation for future organizing efforts. By providing Afro-Indigenous community members with a space to reclaim their stories and family histories on their own terms, Proclaiming Our Roots resists dominant structures of knowledge production as epistemic justice, and asserts that Afro-Indigenous identity is not only a cultural reality, but a social force to be reckoned with because…

We Are Still Here!

3. Sustaining Grassroots Movements: Situating POR in Context

3.1. Grassroots Sustainability and Movement Longevity

The question of sustainability has been pivotal to social movement studies, as many grassroots movements emerge with powerful momentum but struggle to endure over time (Ganz 2010a; Tarrow 1998). Understanding why some movements sustain themselves while others dissipate requires examining key factors, such as leadership continuity, adaptability, resource mobilization, and community engagement. These factors offer a framework for analyzing the evolution of Proclaiming Our Roots, while assessing its long-term potential as a grassroots social movement.

Movements with strong intergenerational leadership and decentralized governance structures tend to sustain themselves beyond their initial phase (McAdam et al. 2001; Ransby 2003). Leadership sustainability is critical because movements often rely on a core group of organizers to initiate momentum, but long-term success depends on broad-based leadership and collective decision-making. The Civil Rights Movement, for example, was not solely driven by figures like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but also by grassroots organizers such as Ella Baker, who emphasized community-led leadership rather than reliance on charismatic figures (Ransby 2003). Similarly, Indigenous resurgence movements, such as Idle No More, have remained strong due to their decentralized organizing structure, the leadership of Indigenous women, and their ability to engage multiple generations in both physical and digital spaces (Betasamosake Simpson 2017; Palmater 2015). Rather than relying on state recognition, these movements emphasize relational accountability, direct action, and land-based practices as key strategies for long-term resistance.

Resource mobilization is critical to the sustainability of social movements (Edwards and McCarthy 2004; McCarthy and Zald 1977). Social movements require a steady flow of resources, including financial support, community-driven funding, or non-monetary contributions like labor and space. However, movements led by Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous communities often experience significant disparities in resource access. Waldron (2018) highlights how the intersection of racial and colonial structures create unequal resource distribution, resulting in environmental racism and the systemic marginalization of Black and Indigenous communities. Such inequities significantly affect the capacity of grassroots movements to sustain long-term resistance and transformative social change. While some movements, such as the environmental justice movement, have sustained themselves through strategic partnerships, independent funding, and institutional engagement (Agyeman 2005; Bullard 2000), access to these resources has not been equitable. White-led organizations continue to receive the majority of funding and institutional support, while Black- and Indigenous-led environmental justice efforts often operate with significantly fewer resources (Pulido 2000; Taylor 2014; Whyte 2018). This disparity in resource distribution directly impacts which movements can sustain themselves over time, as organizations with financial backing are better positioned to expand, adapt, and remain active in the long term.

For grassroots movements, financial precarity often leads to burnout and fragmentation, making sustained resistance difficult (McCarthy and Zald 1977; Taylor 2014). Ensuring the long-term sustainability of social movements requires not only securing funding but also redistributing decision-making power to the communities most affected by systemic injustices (Pulido 2000; Whyte 2018). Without equitable access to resources, even the most urgent movements risk losing momentum, struggling with leadership continuity, and remaining confined to local rather than broader structural change (Edwards and McCarthy 2004; Ganz 2010b). This raises critical questions about whose knowledge and priorities determine movement longevity and highlights the need for community-led, structurally supported models of sustainability (Betasamosake Simpson 2017; Palmater 2015).

Adaptability to shifting political and community contexts is critical for the long-term sustainability of grassroots movements (McAdam et al. 2001; Tilly 2004). Proclaiming Our Roots illustrates this adaptability clearly; originally a research initiative documenting Afro-Indigenous identities, Proclaiming Our Roots transformed itself into a responsive, community-driven movement that expanded strategically into advocacy, education, and community mobilization. This capacity for continuous adaptation has helped POR sustain its momentum, community support, and resources over time, a point discussed more fully in subsequent sections.

3.2. The Role of Institutions and Movement-to-Institution Pathways

Institutional engagement presents another challenge for grassroots movements. Some movements actively seek to integrate their demands into policy or legal frameworks, while others reject institutionalization to avoid co-optation (Meyer and Tarrow 1998). Feminist movements, for example, have sustained themselves in part by institutionalizing their gains in policies and legal protections (Bernstein 2003; Ferree and Martin 1995). However, some grassroots movements resist formalization because they recognize the risks of being absorbed into institutional systems that dilute their “radical”1 goals (Hill Collins and Bilge 2016).

The formation of Black Studies in academia illustrates this tension, as the field emerged from grassroots activism, particularly the 1968–1969 Black Student Strike at San Francisco State College, where Black student organizers fought hard for a curriculum that reflected Black histories and struggles (Marable 2000; Ransby 2003). While their efforts led to the first Black Studies department in a university in North America, institutionalization also meant that universities could limit faculty hiring, underfund programs, and restructure departments under broader “Ethnic Studies” umbrellas, weakening the movement’s grassroots intent (Ferguson 2012; Kelley 2002). This example highlights how movements that seek structural inclusion can risk co-optation, as institutional recognition can shift power away from community leadership and toward academic and administrative priorities (Wilder 2013).

Proclaiming Our Roots navigates this tension—and there is always tension. While it originated as an institutionally funded research project, POR has since maintained community-driven governance while resisting institutional control, ensuring that its work remains accountable to Afro-Indigenous priorities rather than external funders or academic structures (Kovach 2021; Wilson 2008). This balance will be critical in determining POR’s long-term sustainability, particularly in maintaining its community-driven governance and relational accountability without compromising its core values or becoming overly reliant on external funding (Ferguson 2012; Ganz 2010a; Palmater 2015; Whyte 2018).

3.3. Situating Proclaiming Our Roots Within Contemporary Social Movements

Proclaiming Our Roots exists at the intersection of community-based research and grassroots movement-building, navigating the complications of institutional engagement, sustainability, and decolonial resistance. While initially perceived as a research initiative to document Afro-Indigenous experiences through digital oral storytelling, POR has evolved into an organizing space that cultivates identity reclamation, cultural resurgence, and community mobilization. This transformation reflects broader trends in social movements, where knowledge production becomes an active site of resistance rather than a passive academic endeavor.

Like many grassroots Indigenous and Black movements, Proclaiming Our Roots remains committed to community-driven governance, while resisting external pressures that could weaken its priorities. Black and Indigenous grassroots movements have long engaged in relational forms of organizing that center community accountability rather than institutional authority, building solidarity through shared struggles for self-determination and resistance to systemic erasure and oppression (Estes and Dhillon 2019; King 2019; Robinson 1983). While POR engages with institutional structures, we work to ensure that its priorities remain grounded in Afro-Indigenous epistemologies, and that its efforts are accountable to the Afro-Indigenous communities we serve rather than being shaped by external funders or academic frameworks. However, this autonomy comes with challenges. As history has shown, movements that avoid institutional co-optation often struggle with sustainability, particularly in securing long-term resources without compromising their core values (Ferguson 2012; Ganz 2010b). POR must continuously negotiate how to sustain its organizing efforts while remaining quasi-independent from structures and systems that have historically and contemporarily marginalize Afro-Indigenous voices (Palmater 2015; Whyte 2018).

The evolution of Proclaiming Our Roots highlights how Afro-Indigenous knowledge reclamation and community-led research can serve as catalysts for grassroots mobilization. POR does not just document Afro-Indigenous presence; it actively challenges systemic erasure, mobilizes cultural resurgence, and creates relational spaces of resistance. In doing so, it aligns with broader movements for self-determination, land-based resurgence, and Indigenous and Black liberation. While sustainability remains an ongoing concern, POR offers a promising model of how research-driven initiatives can transition into lasting, community-led movements that remain accountable to the people they serve.

Building on our community-based research roots, we trace Proclaiming Our Roots from a digital oral-storytelling project into a sustained grassroots movement. We show how arts-based knowledge mobilization, decentralized governance, and strategic resource practices outside institutional control uphold relational accountability, and how an ongoing commitment to Afro-Indigenous priorities drives POR’s longevity. This case shows how storytelling, self-determination, and decolonial praxis can sustain community-driven movements beyond the academy.

In the next section, we describe our relational approach to engaging with the reflections shared through Proclaiming Our Roots. We begin by outlining the research methods used for this paper; then, we share themes that emerged from a POR gathering; and finally, we offer closing reflections on the ongoing significance of this work for Afro-Indigenous connection, healing, and community-rooted movement-building.

4. Methodology

In January 2025, ten Proclaiming Our Roots community members held a sharing circle to reflect on how the Proclaiming Our Roots project has shaped the lives of Afro-Indigenous community members, both individually and collectively. Conversations explored what the project has meant to them, how it has supported shared identity building, and how it connects to broader social and political contexts. Community members who had engaged with the project at different points over its ten-year history were invited to speak about their experiences, reflecting on how Proclaiming Our Roots has contributed to identity reclamation, cultural and spiritual expression, and community organizing. To further situate POR within wider grassroots social movements, community members were asked to define social movements in their own words and consider whether they see POR as a social movement. Reflections also addressed the intersections of Black resistance and Indigenous self-determination, and how these struggles inform Afro-Indigenous worldviews and push back against systemic erasure.

Additionally, the sharing circle sought to understand how intersectionality—including race, Indigeneity, gender, class, sexual orientation, and identity presentation—affects the relationships and solidarities among Afro-Indigenous Peoples. Community members also reflected on the role of spirituality, land connection, and healing practices in shaping identity, and the potential for these conversations to influence future generations and community-building efforts. This qualitative inquiry was designed to center Afro-Indigenous voices, ensuring that narratives of resistance, identity, and movement-building are documented in ways that honor lived experiences, community knowledge, as well as the informal ways communities mobilize.

4.1. From the Gathering

For this Special Issue of Religions (MDPI), we invited Proclaiming Our Roots community members and members of the advisory council to come together in circle. Ten community and advisory members—Rolta, Demme, Tomsa, Hinti, Jewwan, Jamin, Ripan, Chemis, Tamar, and Rumah—along with members of the research team—Ann Marie, Ciann, and Rachel—gathered to reflect on the significance of the POR project, shared experiences of Afro-Indigenous identity, and explored how the project contributes to community-building, cultural expression, and resistance. Community members joined from many directions, including Tkarón:to (Toronto), Kjipuktuk (Halifax), Wawiiahtanan Ziibii (Windsor), and other territories. We met on Zoom, on 20 January 2025, for two hours of dialog and reflection.

During our time together in circle, we moved through seven interconnected topics. These included reflections on the personal and collective significance of POR in Afro-Indigenous communities; how the project has supported cultural expression and the building of collective identities; and whether and how community members view POR as a social movement. We also discussed how Black resistance and Indigenous self-determination have shaped individual worldviews and challenged the erasure of Afro-Indigenous identity, as well as how intersectionally—across Indigeneity, race, gender, sexuality—we present to Canadian society (how we are read or perceived by others in terms of our Blackness, Indigeneity, or both, or neither…), can either strengthen or complicate connections among Afro-Indigenous Peoples. Community members also reflected on the role of spirituality, religion, connection to land, and healing in shaping self-understanding, and shared insights into how these conversations might inform the future and support future generations.

Through storytelling and shared dialog, community members spoke to how POR has shaped their sense of belonging, challenged erasure, and created spaces for intergenerational knowledge-sharing and healing. Four key themes emerged: Identity and Belonging, Storytelling as Decolonial Praxis, Healing, Spirituality and Collective Consciousness, and Resistance and Social Movement Building.

4.2. Data Analysis

This work is grounded in an Indigenous research paradigm, where knowledge is relational, storied, and connected to the lived realities of those who are in relation (Wilson 2008). Rather than treating theories as separate from lived realities, this study engages with concepts like intersectionality and Black and Indigenous feminisms through a decolonial lens, ensuring that analysis is guided first and foremost by the voices, experiences, and knowledge systems of POR community members themselves. Using a thematic and relational approach, the narratives were not reduced to fixed categories or simplified; instead, they were honored as fluid, multifaceted, and always interconnected.

Guided by seven key areas of reflection shared during the gathering, we conducted a thematic analysis, beginning with a close review of the transcript. These areas centered on the significance of Proclaiming Our Roots, identity and cultural expression, understandings of social movements, Black and Indigenous resistance, intersectionality, spirituality and land connection, and visions for the future. We coded the transcript inductively, identifying repeated ideas, resonant expressions, and key points of connection across responses. These codes were then grouped into broader thematic categories. Throughout, we centered the voices and priorities of community members, paying close attention to how they engaged with one another’s reflections, and remained grounded in the relational and contextual nature of each story shared.

In keeping with Indigenous ways of being and knowing, storytelling is key to this analysis. As Kovach (2021, p. 156) emphasizes, stories are not merely data but “story is gift” that holds history, meaning, and responsibility. Stories are acts of presence, resistance, and truth-telling. They carry teachings and futures within them. Understanding emerges not through detached observation, but through relationships between people, histories, land, and the ongoing realities of Afro-Indigenous survivance.

4.3. Ethical and Relational Considerations

Rather than evaluating this work through Western measures of validity and reliability, also known as rigor, the gifts of data in this gathering are rooted in relational accountability and reciprocity (Wilson 2008). The integrity of this work is reflected in the relationships built, the care taken in engaging with stories, and the commitment to ensuring that knowledge remains with and for the communities involved. The themes and insights in this exploration were shaped in relationship, emerging from shared dialog. Gifted stories belong to the people who share them. They are not decontextualized, but held with care, acknowledging the responsibilities that come with carrying knowledge forward (Kovach 2021).

Moreover, this work does not seek to arrive at fixed conclusions or distill Afro-Indigenous experiences into simplified categories. Instead, it is part of an ongoing, relational process of storying identity, resistance, and movement-building. Recognizing that there is no single, neutral approach to research, Proclaiming Our Roots employs a methodology that is inherently relational, justice-oriented, and reflective of community priorities and knowledge systems. Rather than viewing stories solely as data, this approach honors narratives as active forms of resistance, identity affirmation, and relational accountability. In this way, stories do not merely document Afro-Indigenous realities; they actively challenge colonial structures that erase or marginalize lived experiences. Thus, POR characterizes how academic research can organically and intentionally transform into grassroots movements that remain accountable and responsive to the communities they serve. The following further explores this transformative process by centering Afro-Indigenous self-determination, decolonial knowledge production, and the sustainability of grassroots movements within and beyond institutional settings.

5. Discussion

5.1. Identity and Belonging

Identity and belonging emerged as themes in reflections about Proclaiming Our Roots. POR provides space for Afro-Indigenous community members to reclaim their identities on their terms, beyond colonial binaries that historically forced people to identify as either Black or Indigenous, but not both. This binary has historically and contemporarily created isolation, making the affirmation within POR particularly powerful, as Rolta stated,

We don’t have to just say, ‘Oh, I’m Black’ or ‘Oh, I’m Native,’ we can say that we’re Afro-Indigenous.

Being able to name oneself and one’s community authentically resists imposed colonial identities and asserts personal and collective agency.

Demme emphasized collective affirmation…

Now we can collectively, together, stand together as a community and be proud that we are both Black and Indigenous.

Collective identity formation within Proclaiming Our Roots functions as resistance against institutional and societal narratives that attempt to erase Afro-Indigenous realities, positioning POR explicitly as an evolving grassroots social movement.

Rolta also highlighted the transformative power of this validation:

This program made me comfortable in my skin. So now I’m comfortable enough to tell the next person, no, that’s not who you are. This is who you are. And they’re not telling you who you are.

Through the creation of affirming and validating spaces to hold with care Afro-Indigenous community members, Proclaiming Our Roots not only strengthens personal identity but encourages collective resistance against imposed categories and constraints, demonstrating active resistance to institutional narratives and limitations that historically and contemporarily dictate identity.

5.2. Storytelling as Decolonial Praxis

Storytelling within Proclaiming Our Roots operates beyond documentation and archiving, it is active resistance against historical erasure. As Tomsa explained,

When we don’t pass this [knowledge] down, when we don’t have these conversations, they disappear… The information cannot be passed down because it was not given in the first place.

Storytelling within POR ensures Afro-Indigenous histories remain visible, intentionally confronting and resisting institutional erasures that silence Afro-Indigenous voices.

Proclaiming Our Roots uses digital oral storytelling to share community narratives beyond immediate circles, broadening public awareness and understanding. Jewwan described…

We’re building that community, not just within the confines of POR, but we’re taking that and we’re spreading it.

An arts-based method such as digital oral storytelling strategically leverages institutional resources like academic support and digital platforms to create accessible archives and widely shared narratives, without becoming limited by these institutional affiliations (Beals and Wilson 2020). This allows POR to resist institutional control while making strategic use of available resources.

Thus, storytelling within POR serves as a knowledge mobilization tool, a form of resistance that simultaneously challenges institutional limitations and expands Proclaiming Our Root’s visibility and impact.

5.3. Healing, Spirituality, and Collective Consciousness

Critical consciousness raising, spirituality, and healing form essential elements of Proclaiming Our Root’s movement-building efforts. Community members articulated how POR has transitioned into a space where identity affirmation and collective action become interconnected. Jewwan reflected on community strength, as an example…

I think a program like this and kind of that community that’s been built around this program really helps give me that strength… It’s really just that strength of community [that] has really been the most important thing to me throughout all of this.

Proclaiming Our Roots offers spaces previously unavailable within traditional institutional settings, emphasizing relationships and community support to nurture collective resistance and healing.

Hinti further talked about collective solidarity as foundational to this process:

I believe like this program was showing a lot of us that there’s a lot of similarities that we all have.

Healing among POR community members recognizes shared struggles, critical consciousness, and solidarity as a foundation for collective action and resistance. These shared understandings allow Afro-Indigenous community members to resist divisive institutional categorizations and instead focus on collective empowerment and unity.

Spirituality came through as a meaningful part of how community members understand themselves, their healing, and their place in relation to others. Rather than drawing from a single tradition, several spoke about the blending of Indigenous and African diasporic spiritual practices, ways of being carried by land, family, and everyday life.

Jewwan shared,

My grandmother still kind of held on to her spiritual beliefs, and that whole idea of like that connection to the land… It’s very much that blending of practices that were brought over to the Americas by [sic] slaves, combined with the Indigenous spirituality that was already in that region.

Tomsa reflected,

I’ve been having new understandings about my spirituality and what that means to be Afro-Indigenous… This whole project has been eye-opening for me… finding out that this is part of my Indigenous roots as well… I would love to meet more people in my community who are blending the two spiritualities… the way we connect with Great Spirit… with all these different ancestors.

Jamin added a perspective grounded in openness and inclusion…

I don’t think like any kind of ceremony or religious practice, like when it comes to emotional or spiritual healing should be only for one group or the other.

Spirituality, for many, was not separate from healing or collective awareness. Spirituality shaped how they return to themselves, honor their roots, and stay connected to something larger than themselves, something that holds blood memory, relation, and responsibility.

Hinti also described POR’s growing influence beyond immediate community boundaries…

So, I truly believe that we’re a social movement… we’re just getting bigger and bigger and bigger… we’re being known. We’re going to be known, and a lot of people are taking in who we are.

By creating supportive spaces that encourage critical reflection and solidarity, POR actively resists the isolation, marginalization, and erasure frequently perpetuated by institutional limitations. Simultaneously, we strategically harness institutional resources like funding and digital platforms to enhance community visibility, validate Afro-Indigenous experiences, and advocate for broader societal recognition. Thus, critical consciousness raising within POR directly connects healing and activism in transforming personal empowerment into sustained resistance and movement-building.

5.4. Resistance and Social Movement Building

Proclaiming Our Roots actively functions as a grassroots social movement that extends beyond research and identity reclamation. Community matriarch Rolta explained,

It’s a social movement… I have people interested in [Afro-Indigenous] things that have nothing and never been into the program.

Rolta’s reflection highlights POR’s capacity to transcend institutional research boundaries and engage broader communities in collective action and awareness.

Jamin’s description further clarified POR’s role in challenging dominant colonial narratives:

A social movement is something that goes against what the norms of society say… It was either you need to be part of this community, or you need to be part of that community, but you can’t be part of both.

Proclaiming Our Roots works to reject institutional and societal contradictions, positioning itself as a space where Afro-Indigenous community members refuse imposed limitations, while asserting their rightful presence in contemporary discourse, social placemaking, and politics.

Rumah spoke directly to this resistance, through active reclamation of erased histories…

All of our history has kind of been erased…my research is to bring all the history and then all the research to support the history…piece it together because a lot of it has … been erased.

By strategically leveraging institutional resources such as university funding, digital technologies, and research infrastructure, POR systematically documents, shares, and reclaims Afro-Indigenous histories and lived experiences. Yet POR intentionally maintains community governance, resisting institutional control by ensuring community-defined priorities and narratives shape its direction.

Here, Proclaiming Our Roots demonstrates how grassroots movements can resist institutional limitations even as they strategically use institutional resources. This balancing act reinforces community priorities, strengthens collective identities, and ensures long-term sustainability through relational governance and community accountability. Together, these insights show that relational accountability, arts-based knowledge mobilization and decentralized governance form the foundation of POR’s sustained momentum.

6. Reflections

Proclaiming Our Roots started as a research initiative focused on documenting Afro-Indigenous identities through digital oral storytelling, but evolved progressively into a grassroots social movement committed to Afro-Indigenous self-determination, community organizing, and decolonial resistance. The stories shared by POR community members show that this shift was not imposed by outside institutions; but rather, this ongoing transformation emerged directly through the community members’ own efforts, leadership, passion, and priorities. Significant to POR’s evolution has been the intentional centering of Afro-Indigenous voices, particularly through storytelling, as both a research methodology and a method for collective action.

The findings highlight Proclaiming Our Roots’ impact on individual and collective identity reclamation. Community members articulated that POR provided a necessary space for affirming Afro-Indigenous identities, explicitly resisting colonial racial binaries that force individuals to identify either as Black or Indigenous, but not both. Rolta’s reflection emphasizes this, as they shared the power of explicitly naming themselves as Afro-Indigenous without external justification. Demme further reinforced this notion by noting how the collective affirmation of identity within POR created a sense of communal pride, reinforcing that identity reclamation was not just personal, but inherently tied to collective consciousness and social empowerment. Thus, the movement’s evolution has been fundamentally connected to the validation of identities historically marginalized and erased, positioning identity reclamation as an act foundational to the sustainability of Afro-Indigenous knowledge mobilization.

Principal to Proclaiming Our Root’s transformation was the intentional use of storytelling as a form of activism. Community members described storytelling not simply as an act of preserving histories, but as a deliberate strategy for resisting erasure and amplifying Afro-Indigenous voices. Tomsa expressed how the intentional sharing of stories ensures that critical knowledge remains accessible to future generations, addressing how knowledge transmission through storytelling interrupts colonial processes of historical silencing and re-stories Afro-Indigenous narratives of existence. Jewwan expanded this perspective, emphasizing how digital oral storytelling within POR serves as both a social tool and a means of extending community reach beyond local gatherings. The intentional shift to digital spaces allows POR to engage with wider networks, which is essential for building a broader community consciousness around Afro-Indigenous presence and resistance, in solidarity with Black and Indigenous grassroots movements.

Of note was the role of critical consciousness raised around spirituality and collective healing in strengthening Proclaiming Our Roots as a grassroots movement. Community members spoke to how POR facilitated deep reflections about historical and contemporary oppression, creating a relational framework in which spirituality, healing and critical consciousness become intertwined. Jewwan’s insights about POR’s community strength reveal how emotional connections cultivated through storytelling enable ongoing engagement and resilience, preventing isolation and burnout. Hinti echoed this, emphasizing that healing within POR emerges through the recognition of shared struggles and collective resistance, rather than through erasure of differences. Such reflections support the idea that the sustainability of POR as a grassroots social movement is tied directly to its relational practices of critical reflection, intergenerational healing, and collective self-care.

Finally, Proclaiming Our Roots stories illustrate how POR deliberately negotiates institutional tensions by strategically using resources such as academic funding and institutional platforms without being constrained by them. Community members shared experiences of engaging these institutional supports while consistently ensuring that decision-making power and accountability remain centered within Afro-Indigenous communities themselves. By grounding its governance in relational accountability to Elders and community knowledge holders and members, POR ensures that institutional resources support grassroots autonomy, rather than limiting or reshaping community-defined priorities. Community-driven governance structures ensure accountability remains rooted within Afro-Indigenous communities, resisting co-optation or dilution of their political goals. Proclaiming Our Root’s evolution highlights how grassroots movements can navigate institutional spaces without becoming constrained by them, suggesting that institutional affiliation does not inherently compromise grassroots authenticity. However, community members and the research team acknowledged the ongoing challenge of balancing these tensions, recognizing that maintaining POR’s integrity as both a research project and a grassroots movement will require continual critical reflection on where the research ends and the movement begins, as well as transparent governance practices, and intentional relational accountability.

Together, these community teachings demonstrate how Proclaiming Our Roots transitioned from research to activism, offering insights into how grassroots social movements emerge, evolve, and sustain themselves through relational governance, collective consciousness, storytelling, and strategic engagement with institutional resources. This analysis contributes to broader conversations about Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous resistance, grassroots sustainability, and decolonial knowledge production, highlighting how institutional initiatives can evolve into meaningful platforms for lasting grassroots social movements that remain accountable to the communities they serve.