How do you re-member and restor(y) the kinship that you have always been part of?
The Living Kinship Lexicon is a living community archive of kinship vocabularies, (re)invented and redefined by intersectional Queer and Migrant communities. Initiated by Sun Chang, started in 2025, Amsterdam.
You are invited to grow it with us!
Four ways to be with this lexicon:
① READ
Browse the archive. Let other voices inspire what you might not have words for yet.
② ADD
Contribute your kinship word — in any language, from your lived experience. Your entry lives here instantly and permanently.
③ PRINT & PRACTICE
Download and print the full lexicon as pocket-sized cards.
Initiate a ritual in your community. Follow the ritual process below.
④ SHARE
Share in the community space.
How to Practice with Your Community?
This lexicon was born from a ritual process.
You are invited to experience it — alone or with your more-than-human kins.
The ritual has three steps:
① Inventing a Kinship Lexicon
Invent your family vocabulary for kinship lexicon: What are the keywords that you think are important family components?
Write down 6 kinship keywords onto paper using water-based, non-toxic ink. Along with each keyword, write down your understanding, feelings, experiences, personal stories, or reflections.
(If you are in group) Collect and read all the vocabularies together. Select 6 keywords from the total, and write down your understanding, feeling, experience, personal story or reflection about them.
② (Re)Inventing a Kinship Lexicon
Take off the keywords that you no longer want to hold the same meaning or experience anymore. Redefine it.
③ Kinship Grief Session
Dissolve the paper of your unwanted kinship vocabulary into a Kinship Well (find a container filled with your water resources nearby). Reading out these narrations while releasing. Letting go of the unwanted kinship narratives.
(Collectively) Dump the water back to a canal, a river, or a sea.
© 2026 SUN CHANG | Family Embodiment Practice™