Digital storytelling as a research tool through a two to four minute film was described by Vacchelli (2018), Lenette et al. (2019), and Willox (2013), who respectively used digital storytelling to reveal the experience of immigrants, refugees, and Native Americans.
In the Embodied Digital Storytelling (EDS) pilot, a choreography came first and worked as the base for the story.
This choreography was created by investigating the body, similarly to Vacchelli (2018), who also used embodied inquiry but instead used collages.
EDS was created from a premise also seen in research for trauma using yoga, where the body is involved in regulating emotions and holding untold ancestral stories (Cushing & Braum, 2018).
Therefore, investigating the body could reveal emotions that have been repressed or historical wounds (Caldwell & Johnson, 2012; LaChiusa, 2016).
Each part of the pilot study was based on a component found in past research that resulted in resiliency, well-being, sense of belonging, sense of home, cultural identity, relational healing, attachment repair, and place attachment.
By choosing EDS as a methodology, the pilot study allowed participants to have a self-directed self-investigation and therefore provided a path for participant’s sense of empowerment.
Embodied Digital Storytelling
with Ancestral Legacy
Pilot Study Results
The themes found in the pilot study across the three EDS embodied narratives were loss, silent grief, support, healing, and identity.
Felsen (2018) and Baider (2000) described how patterns of transgenerational trauma could manifest later in life as an insecure attachment or a late onset of transgenerational trauma.
This pattern was seen as difficulty in having interdependency and relying on others later in life.
Through EDS, participants worked together, creating a sense of trust in each other, the environment, and a healing story that held the potential to repair attachment wounds due to loss and silent grief.
The process of this pilot study created a body-oriented technique to investigate different aspects of one’s ancestral legacy and identity. A pilot study participant said, “a different approach from way different insights into something that I probably would have never come to...”
This study also explored attachment to places when participants chose a location to make a recording that allowed repair and healing of one's sense of belonging (Bogaç, 2009).
By entering into contact with a place of choice, participants were creating a relationship to the land or place, which could create an important aspect of resilience and well-being (Coughlan & Hermes, 2016). A pilot participant showed repair and healing in this statement, “It did help with some forgiveness.”