The Stories We Never Tell: Orature with AAPI Women in the Church

“The Stories We Never Tell is an anti-colonial orature project making visible the faith stories of AAPI Christian women against the backdrop of imperialism, white supremacy, and rising anti-Asian violence. ”

Team Members/Contributors

Christine Jean Hong Columbia Theological Seminary Contact Me

About this sabbatical grant for researchers

The Stories We Never Tell is an anti-colonial project weaving together the faith stories of AAPI women through the practice of shared orature, or oral traditioning in community. The project’s methodology uses Participatory Action Research with anti-colonial commitments to co-learn and co-create with participants. Participants are invited to share never-before-told stories of faith with one another in a dialogic story exchange. The exchange begins with one woman who tells her story with another woman in her circle of relationships. The woman who receives the first story tells her own story in response. The invitee then selects another woman from her circle of relationship to bring into dialogue with her story and to receive a new never-before-shared story of faith. This practice of weaving stories together through relationships is already a powerful practice of remembering and re-membering among AAPI communities. The practice of orature, or oral traditioning, makes visible stories and shared experiences across differences. This orature project is a way for Asian and Asian North American women to share their stories as an act of anti-oppression through resistance and power. The transmission of their stories to one another and through the Church pushes back against frameworks and narratives of white supremacy, including orientalism, and the once again rising anti-Asian hate that disproportionately affects the lives of women. The project will result in online teaching and learning resources for theological education and the Church workshops facilitated by co-learners from this research, and a book about the process, experience, and of course, the stories.