In this episode of Yurt Jurt, host Diana Kudaibergen sits down with Elmira Kakabaeva, writer, educator, and founder of the course “Family Ethnography: How to Decolonize Your Writing.” Through her course and her platform on Instagram, Elmira invites Central Asians to reconnect with their roots and rethink the narratives inherited from colonial history. Diana and Elmira talk about what inspired her to create the course, how living in Russia shaped her worldview, and what decoloniality truly means in the context of Central Asia. They discuss family trees and the traditional practice of remembering one’s “seven fathers”- a lineage that excludes women, and question how we can reclaim our place in history. Can we be decolonized if we are not speaking our own languages? Together, they explore how memory, writing, and language can become tools of resistance, healing, and self-definition. Elmira also shares a reading list that shapes her work and thinking: Madina Tlostanova, Ocean Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous), Elizabeth Acevedo (Family Lore), Isabella Hammad (The Parisian), Maria Omar (Honey and a Bit of Wormwood), Baqytgul Sarmekova (To Hell With Poets), Kamila Kovyazina (Five Years), and the writings of her course participants, such as Dinara Tengi (Gifts That We Give to the Sea) with other authors featured on Manshuq Media.