Stolen spaces, stolen generations: Space-time reclamation by Twin-spirit Kumeyaay activist, (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault

Abstract

This paper explores Indigenous understandings of space and time, as represented through Kumeyaay spirituality/cosmology, which contradict the philosophical and ideological meanings in Western ontologies. It offers a non-modern telling of (LaHunt) Karen Vigneault’s life (1958-2019), a Kumeyaay Two-Spirit historian and activist, through Indigenous philosophy, feminist, queer and decolonial theory, historical documents, interviews, and online resources. It tells different “stories” stemming from Vigneault’s life scaling the space of her lived body to the sacredness of the Kuuchamaa mountain and Kumeyaay lands (stolen spaces), her activism for spiritual and cultural reclamation, such as Two-Spirit identity, and the reunification of forcibly separated Indigenous families internationally (stolen generations). This paper analyzes how settler colonization in the United States has affected space-time realties and disrespected the localities, environment, sacred lands, spirits, and bodies of the Kumeyaay people who have inhabited the San Diego region of Southern California for over 10,000 years. It explores how individuals like Vigneault have dedicated their lives to healing the fissures and spirits of local people and lands reuniting space and time through the reclamation of places, histories, languages, traditions, identities, and separated peoples.