resources:

for White Folks

This section offers resources for people socially categorized as “white,” and Euro-descendant Americans in particular, called to explore both the painful legacy of “whiteness” and the healing balm of remembering our own ancient roots. By exploring the ways of our earth-honoring ancestors, we can connect to sources of native wisdom, heal cultural trauma, and contribute to the imperative project of humans returning to conversation and co-creation with the natural world.

This is a small list, seeded in my own Celtic and Nordic lineages, and I know there is much more to add. If you know of resources that would be helpful to include, please suggest them here. 

resources:

for White Folks

This section offers resources for people socially categorized as “white,” and Euro-descendant Americans in particular, called to explore both the painful legacy of “whiteness” and the healing balm of remembering our own ancient roots. (Note: some of these resources may also be of interest to BIPOC folks interested in anti-racist solidarity and coalition building.)

The long history of colonialism around the world is responsible for incredible trauma, and has disconnected countless generations of peoples from our ancestral homelands and traditions. For the humans of the world to regain our connection to ancient ways of knowing, those wounds must be acknowledged and healed.

As white-bodied people in the modern world we carry both the legacy of trauma enacted upon other humans by our ancestors, and the trauma of separation from our own traditional lands and lifeways. 

We have an opportunity to educate ourselves about our histories, confront the dark legacies of the past, and do our part to transform them in solidarity with current and future generations.

These resources are meant to support that journey. By exploring the ways of our own earth-honoring ancestors we can connect to sources of native wisdom, heal cultural and ancestral trauma, and contribute to the imperative project of humans returning to conversation and co-creation with the more-than-human world. 

*

This is a small list, seeded in my own Celtic and Nordic lineages, and I know there is much more to add. If you know of resources that would be helpful to include, please suggest them here. 

 

books & articles

  • Ever Ancient, Ever New: Celtic Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century, by Dolores Whelan
  • How the Irish Became White, by Noel Ignatiev
  • My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem
  • The Nordic Animist Year, by Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen
  • Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape, by Manchan Magan
  • To Speak for the Trees, by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
  • Whiteness Is Not an Ancestor, Lisa Iversen, Ed.

teachers & organizations

  • White Awake. White Awake combats white supremacy by focusing on educational resources and spiritual practices designed to support the engagement of people who’ve been socially categorized as “white” in the creation of a just and sustainable society. 
  • David Dean, Roots Deeper than Whiteness. David is a political writer and educator focused on multi-racial movement building, assisting those of us who are white to develop a rooted, anti-racist identity based in a deeper understanding of our ancestry.
  • Rune Hjarnø Rassmussen and Nordic Animism. Rune is a historian of religion and a specialist on Nordic animism and northern European earth-honoring traditions. 
  • SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice). SURJ is a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial and economic justice.
  • Tonja Reichley and Wild Irish Roots. Tonja is an herbalist, ritualist, and teacher in the ancestral ways of the Irish Wisdom Tradition. 
  • The Trailblazery. A cultural agency dedicated to raising awareness of the story and spirit of Ireland, through language revival and cultural exchange.

podcast episodes

from Wake Up, Human:

other podcasts and episodes:

May it be of benefit.

One of the things that most afflicts this country is that white people don't know who they are or where they come from.

~ James Baldwin

One of the things that most afflicts this country is that white people don't know who they are or where they come from.