Sustainability at the Grass Roots Level: What We Can Learn from a Multinational, Multicultural, Multigenerational Oral History

The concept of sustainability has evolved far beyond its initial environmental foundations, expanding into a multidimensional framework that integrates multinational policies, multicultural values, and multigenerational knowledge, but there is a paucity of bottom up or grass roots research. This paper is a narrative of oral history intersects supported by rigorous documentation including military records, census data, genealogical records, and scholarship extending over four centuries . By synthesizing individual lived experiences with systemic goals, such as those outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [1], a more nuanced understanding of resilience and adaptation emerges. The analysis of recent scholarship indicates that sustainability is a dynamic, narrative - driven process that requires an in- depth understanding of the spatial and temporal consequences of global shifts, ranging from climate catastrophes to the translocal flows of capital and people [2] . This paper uses oral history to show the adaptation of a multigeneration, multicultural “ordinary” family in North America to the social, political, economic, and technological challenges faced over 400 years with a focus on sustainability.