"Everything We Do in Life Is a Teaching Tool": The Role of Indigenous Cultural Generativity in Promoting "Aging in a Good Way" and Cultural Endurance.

Alaska Native Elders engaged in Indigenous cultural generativity through practices such as storytelling, demonstrating skills, and modeling ways of living well.

• Data were collected over 18 years through qualitative interviews with 162 Elders from four of the five regions in Alaska.
• Generative practices included storytelling, demonstrating skills, and modeling ways of living well.
• Indigenous societies use storytelling and role modeling to pass down cultural values, beliefs, and ways of knowing.

Generative practices were associated with positive well-being outcomes for Alaska Native Elders, including happiness, sense of purpose, and overall well-being.

• Elders reported that generative practices helped them feel happy.
• Generative practices gave Elders a sense of purpose.
• Generative practices supported Elders' well-being overall.
• These benefits were described by the Elders themselves in qualitative interviews.

Indigenous cultural generativity was identified as the primary pathway to achieving successful aging among Alaska Native Elders, not merely one component.

• The study documents that Indigenous cultural generativity is 'not solely a component of Alaska Native successful aging, but the primary pathway to achieving successful aging.'
• The study explored generativity as a component of successful aging, noting that few prior studies have examined this relationship.
• The study sample included 162 Elders from four of the five regions in Alaska over an 18-year data collection period.

There is an urgent need to document traditional knowledge and better understand the benefits of generative practices among Indigenous communities.

• Little research exists on the benefits of sharing across generations in Indigenous contexts.
• Few studies explore generativity as a component of successful aging.
• Future research is needed to better understand how different forms of generativity benefit Elders and how to promote and support Indigenous cultural generativity in Alaska Native communities.