Where the Roots Remember: Reclaiming Addiction Recovery, Indigenous Epistemology and Storywork: A Personal Journey into Land Memory through Stories, and Visual Art Narratives as a Pathway of Healing

Abstract

This dissertation examines addiction and healing within Indigenous communities through the lens of Indigenous Storywork. It draws on land-based knowledge and visual art narratives as methodological and theoretical approaches, with a particular focus on storytelling as a means of reclaiming narratives about addiction. Grounded in lived experience, family memory, and relational accountability, the study conceptualizes addiction as a collective and historically situated condition shaped by colonial violence, intergenerational trauma, and disruptions to kinship, culture, and belonging. This research resists dominant deficit-oriented frameworks by centering Indigenous stories as sources of knowledge, authority, and meaning.

Personal narratives are positioned alongside stories shared by Indigenous family members and community participants, who discuss themes of substance use, recovery, loss, and survival. Indigenous Storywork guides both the methodology and analysis, affirming storytelling as a powerful act of narrative reclamation that restores voice, dignity, and relational responsibility. Visual art practices, including beadwork, photography, and digital collage, extend storytelling beyond written language, engaging embodied and affective ways of knowing.

This study advances an Indigenous epistemology-grounded approach to addiction research, counseling practices, and educational leadership, demonstrating how storytelling supports healing by reshaping meaning, restoring relationships, and affirming Indigenous ways of knowing as a pathway to healing.