Seeding Stories of Hope
Storytelling and Narrative Change Programs
Stories can heal the world.
Storytelling and narrative change efforts equip leaders with tools to identify, engage, and transform the religious and spiritually rooted narratives and stories that cause fear, scarcity, division, distrust, isolation, and alienation. Auburn’s work centers religious and cultural narratives, addressing the complexity that religion has been used to harm and heal our communities.
Through Auburn’s storytelling work, we
Develop and share prophetic and hopeful narratives that lead to healing and the common good.
Host storytelling gatherings, virtually and in-person, focused on healing from historic harm.
Auburn’s Letters to the Future, dean’s lectures and storytelling gatherings provide space for people across North America to heal from religious and theological legacies of violence and trauma.
Letters to the Future
Need a little inspiration? Auburn is committed to celebrating stories of hope. Check out our Letters to the Future, read by more than 225,000 people.
These letters are written by Auburn’s broader community in an effort to cast a vision of healing and hope from our diverse religious and cultural communities.
Dean’s Lectures
Our Dean’s Lecture Series features storytellers, religious, and cultural leaders who are healing the world. These virtual gatherings are hosted by the Center’s director, Erica Littlewolf, Vonahe’e, Northern Cheyenne, and feature bestselling authors, faith leaders, and healers.
Register for our next gathering at our Eventbrite.
Storytelling Gatherings
Auburn gathers with members of First Nations and Indigenous communities across the country in an effort to explore healing from the historic harm led by the church. Following community healing work and local storytelling efforts, Auburn hosts public gatherings addressing the healing needed for future generations.
Check out our past dean’s lectures and storytelling events on YouTube.
Past Dean’s Lectures and Storytelling Speakers
Julian Brave NoiseCat
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer and student of Salish art and history. His first documentary, Sugarcane,directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia.
Pamela Ayo Yetunde
Buddhist Scholar and writer. Author of Casting Indra’s Net and most recently, Dearly Beloved: Prince, Spirituality and This Thing Called Life.
Tommy Orange
TOMMY ORANGEis a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. His first book, There There, was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. His most recent book, Wandering Stars, won the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize. The prize was awarded for the novel's exploration of intergenerational trauma and its connection to the Sand Creek Massacre and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. He is the 2026 FutureLibrary.no author, constructing a manuscript that will remain in trust for 100 years. He lives in Oakland, California.
Freddy Mutanguha
CEO of the Aegis Trust and Director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Freddy led the development of Aegis’ peace education programme in Rwanda and is now leading Aegis’ work to take this model beyond the borders of Rwanda to areas at risk, including the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Kenya.
Phyllis Webstad
Northern Secwepemc author and activist from the Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation, and the creator of Orange Shirt Day, a day of remembrance marked in Canada later instated as the public holiday of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Lynn Cooper
Dr. Cooper is the author of Embracing Our Time: The Sacrament of Interfaith Friendships. She serves as associate director of campus ministry at Tufts University, that came under national attention when Tufts student, Rumeysa Ozturk, was detained by authorities.
Friends of Roots
Rabbi Hanan Schleisinger and Noor A’wad: Fostering a grassroots movement of understanding, nonviolence, and transformation among Israelis and Palestinians