Ellen-Maria Ekström and the Stories That Connect Us

Abstract

In this article, Metis scholar and psychotherapist Cathy Richardson, together with Swedish psychotherapist, Christina Löwenborg, write about their family, their shared genealogy and their experience of connection and roots in what some might call feminist genealogy or feminist storytelling. This history spans four generations, two continents and a cultural divide. The authors share a great-grandmother, Ellen-Maria Ekström, who lived in Småland in southern Sweden, from 1876−1951. In this paper, the authors explore the implications of being co-descendants of Ellen-Maria and the heritage—women’s knowledge that comes from their maternal relations.

Keywords

• women’s history
• immigration
• Swedish diaspora
• Indigenous women
• feminist storytelling