Becoming a Diné Woman Scholar

Navigating Race, Language, and Identity through Diné Epistemologies

Abstract

This autoethnographic study examines the journey of becoming a Diné asdzáán (woman) scholar through the intersections of race, language, identity, and education. Grounded in Diné epistemologies, this narrative draws on lived experience, intergenerational teachings, and relational accountability to explore how Indigenous knowledge systems shape scholarly identity and practice. The study situates personal experience within broader contexts of colonial schooling, highlighting how educational systems have contributed to the erasure of Indigenous language and knowledge while also serving as sites of resistance and resurgence. Through Indigenous storywork and interpretive autoethnography, this article illustrates how storytelling functions as both methodology and pedagogy, affirming lived experience as a legitimate and rigorous form of knowledge. Findings demonstrate that relationality, cultural grounding, and community responsibility are central to navigating and transforming academic spaces. This work contributes to scholarship on Indigenous methodologies by offering a Diné woman scholar’s narrative as a form of relational knowledge that advances Indigenous educational sovereignty and supports culturally sustaining and decolonizing approaches to education.