By Noelia Khamenia
A haunting Inupiaq folktale about berries, passed down through generations, is helping scholars rethink views of childhood, challenging Western and Catholic perceptions of children as passive, incomplete, or in need of correction.
In a recent virtual talk hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow Elisha Chi explored how Indigenous knowledge systems offer alternatives to Eurocentric conceptions of children. Her talk, titled “Berry People: A Study of Catholic Political Theologies of the Child,” drew from her personal background and the oral traditions of her Inupiaq ancestors.
Chi, who grew up in a conservative Catholic community in the Pacific Northwest, shared a story passed down from her grandmother about the “Berry People,” spiritual beings often mistaken for wild berries. In the tale, picking berries with greed or carelessness disrespects the spirits and invites misfortune. Chi explained that, like berries, children should be approached with care and gratitude. Taking from them without acknowledgment mirrors the harmful ways children are treated in dominant systems.
UCSB Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow Elisha Chi spoke about how Indigenous knowledge challenges Eurocentric understandings of children, at an event hosted by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.
This sharply contrasts with Catholic doctrine, she argued, which has historically portrayed children as born in sin or as blank slates needing salvation and discipline. Such views, Chi said, laid the groundwork for the residential schools that operated across North America well into the 1970s.
Catholic theology, once institutionalized, helped justify taking children from their families, forced assimilation, language erasure, and abuse in these Catholic schools.
“The child as innocent, the child as consumable good, and the child as a problem,” Chi said, describing how children were framed not as individuals to nurture, but as spiritual projects to fix.
Chi reflected on her academic training in theology and religious studies, saying it allowed her to question the religious narratives she grew up with. Reconnecting with Indigenous frameworks became both an intellectual and deeply personal journey.
“What are the stories that we tell of the relationship between religious institutions and Indigenous lands today?” she asked. “I’m thinking about how that relationship looks when we start talking about children.”
In contrast to Catholic views, the Berry People story centers children as sacred, active participants in a reciprocal system of care. Chi emphasized that children are not just developing people, but carriers of wisdom and agency.
“The story of the Berry People was really faithfully transmitted,” she said. “I do not remember a single telling … but I know the story so intimately that Grandma must have told it to me hundreds of times.”
Chi’s research is part of a larger effort to recognize and mend the harm inflicted by residential schools. She intends for her work to contribute to help body of literature challenging the links between colonization, childhood, and theology.
“For the Inupiaq, for the Inuit, berry harvesting is women’s work,” she said. “Out of all the stories that survived in my family after the federal Indian boarding school violence, the story of the Berry People was really faithfully transmitted.” This, she said, underscores the story’s role in maintaining cultural continuity.
More than a tale, the Berry People story offers a living philosophy. It reflects Indigenous values where children are honored not just for their potential, but for who they already are. Chi cited her own daughter as an example.
“Her laughter provides medicine in the family,” she said. “Because of her, I really see children as self-determining beings who actively navigate and negotiate inter-familial relationships.”
A slide from UCSB Religious Studies postdoctoral fellow Elisha Chi's recent IHC talk on how Indigenous views of childhood contrast with those in Catholic theologies. An Inupiaq folk tale conveys how children, like berries, are approached with care in Indigenous cultures, Chi said.
The Chi suggests that the metaphor of children as berries points to their nourishing role in families.
“What kind of nourishing do our children offer to those that they choose relationships with, such as grandparents and elders?” Chi asked. For her, this metaphor speaks to the intergenerational ties that sustain communities.
She also addressed the concept of ‘refusal’ in Indigenous contexts, a form of resistance.
“Refusal, when we think about this in the academy, often refers to the rejection by Indigenous communities of the idea that governments or institutions should know everything about our lives, stories or ceremonies.”
She contrasted this with the binding morality of conservative Catholic communities, where violating group norms often leads to exclusion. This, she said, stands in stark contrast to the relationship-based values embedded in the Berry People story.
The story of the Berry People, where children are berries, nourishment, and are worthy of appreciation, offers a powerful framework to confront historical harm and imagine new, care-centered paths for the future, Chi told her audience.
Noelia Khamenia is a third-year UCSB student majoring in Communication and pursuing the Professional Writing Minor.