The start ...

Cultural Attachment Theory:

I gotta say this is going to be a spiritual journey for me, and right now that is exactly what I need.  Creating this theory really evolved from the teaching I have received most of my life, from my grandparents, my mom and dad, and my niwaye'e.  These people have taught me the importance of culture, and at times this process has been transformational.  I am praying that it will be ...

I have completed my first chapter of my dissertation.  It begins with a literature review on colonization, decolonization, culture, attachment, identity, and development.  Then it moves into Indigenous research methodologies.  I am hoping to do the research in Treaty #3 area, and work with the people to define actually what cultural attachment theory is. 

You see I have this belief, that there is this point when we as Indigenous people thirst for the culture.  When we come to ceremony or when we come to elders, we are ready to begin to understand our purpose here on Turtle Island.  It might not be purpose, but it might be a need ... something inside of us that wants or need to be close to that sacredness within our own Indigenous culture. 

I have often talked about attachment theory ... where we attach to our mothers, our fathers, our aunties or uncles, or our grandparents.  We bond ... we attach to them.  We seek something ... and if we are lucky they give it to us.  What I know about the culture (for Indigenous people) is that we seek it sometimes, and we attach to it ... WHAT IS IT ... and WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE.  How does it happen.  This is what I want to determine in my research.   

What is cultural attachment theory?