My academic journey has led me to examine and critique history, context, and narratives with a decolonial, queer, and feminist lens. The lens provides the language of my ancestors’ lived experiences as the oppressed and the oppressor. The language I have gained during my academic journey has shaped my voice which is rooted in liberation and supported by the pillars of reclamation, ritual, and renewal. The growth in my academic experience over the past seven years has been weaved with a holistic, experiential, and intersectional approach. The intersections of my learning and comprehension have spanned over time.

Reclamation is the process of unpacking over acculturation through education. Armed with knowledge humans can empower themselves to create change within self and community. Reclamation has led Serina to reconnect with her ancestral past of her Indigenous and European family. By asking the difficult questions about colonization, she has been able to begin the process of generational trauma.

Ritual is the tool in which the healing processes can take physical shape. For thousands of years, humans who were connected to ecology and community understood the importance of ritual. When ritual is no longer meaningful and just an oppressive act of obligation, that is when dogma poisons the medicine of ritual. Serina asks the questions of how we can incorporate ritual that is meaningful, healing, and relevant to our modern lives.

Renewal is what organically occurs when reclamation and ritual are implemented. The renewal processes focuses on individual methods of healing that reveals trauma in the body (somatic) so that the body, mind, and spirit can be freed.