Indigenous Worldbuilding and Disability: Diné Teachings of Female Rain

Our lives are built from story, and all story imparts meaning. This is a story of how I, as a Diné person, conceptualize disability through the Diné concept of Female Rain. There are philosophical narratives, community narratives, and legal and political narratives that all shape how we as a society come to know and understand what disability is. Many of us assume our understanding of disability is the same. However, Indigenous Peoples have their own teachings of disability, rooted in relationship and understandings of the rich diversity found everywhere in the natural world. These teachings are as much sustaining as they are liberating. These understandings are grounded in aspirations of well-being and flourishing. They are grounded in the philosophy of right relations . This article is grounded on a Diné conceptualization of disability as relational ways of knowing. I share stories of the land and of my own journey as a mother who walks alongside a beautiful Kinyaa'aani young person who is Autistic. By using my story as a mother and student of my Autistic young person in conversation with the stories of my people, the land, and the natural world, I frame a new understanding of disability oriented toward wholeness, belonging, and profound love.