Heathenry Faced Cultural Colonization

The articles on this site are created out of conversations that occur in the Decolonizing Heathenry facebook group. As such, the authorship credit goes to the people in that group. That being said, this essay was compiled (and narrated) by Kaare Melby.

Heathenry faced colonization. Its peoples were coerced to convert to a new culture and religion. It took time, but it was a process that left behind the cultural adaptations that heathenry had undertaken over thousands of years, in favor of a new doctrine of expansion, control, and short-term gains based on the individual, not the group/clan/tribe. They faced social, economic, political, and sometimes violent coercion until a change is all that made sense. It became an inevitable choice. Without that system of power in place and marching toward them, that choice would not have been made, the culture would have remained intact. That process was destructive and painful. In reconstruction, we need to undo some of that so we can find the traditional knowledge our ancestors forged over thousands of years.

That is decolonization.

Re-learning the heathen worldview is decolonization.
Re-building tribe is decolonization.
Reconstructing the religion is decolonization.
Reconstructing the farming practices and diets of the elder heathen is decolonization.
Taking back the lessons of our ancestors. Learning the teachings our people gained over thousands of years is decolonization.

I don’t think we can let decolonization become something that is owned by one political party or the other. I don’t think we can let decolonization become something owned by one culture. It is important to any culture that has been colonized.

When heathens acknowledge that they are partaking in a process of decolonization, they open the door to see how other cultures have undertaken this process. Heathens can learn from other cultures. As Heathens, we can learn what worked in their process of rebuilding their lost traditions. Cultures all over the world are working on decolonizing.

Part of our process of decolonization is to break the idea that heathens are doing something different from other traditional cultures who are working on decolonization and reconstruction. And that is a little painful because once our ancestors were colonized, they started colonizing other cultures. They colonized other cultures that are now fighting to decolonize their culture. If we see the damage colonization had on our many cultures, and the damage our ancestors caused once they were colonized, we can start to acknowledge that this system has really hurt all of us, and we, together, can undo some of that damage, we can heal, together (but in our own culturally unique ways).

I know that might feel sticky to some. But it’s a part of the healing that we need to face. And once we face it, there is a lot of positive development waiting for us.