In the fall of 2023, I took INDIGENOUS STUDIES 1100: Introduction to Indigenous Studies, offered at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. My professor for the term was Len Pierre, of Len Pierre Consulting.
Figure 1.2 > VIDEO > TEDx TALKS. “Cultural Safety Education as the Blueprint for Reconciliation | Len Pierre | TEDxSFU.” YouTube, 29 Mar 2022.
This is the course syllabus.
This online journal will act as a repository of my written reflections and assignments for this course.
INTRODUCTION
Please take a moment to introduce yourselves in the forum here. You can answer the following questions in your introduction:
What is your name?
I’m Steven Hanju Lee, but at birth I was named Steven Robert Han Lee. As a teenager, I changed my name to Steven Hanju Lee, to reflect the name of my late father. Han was his given name here in Canada, and it’s been a part of me since birth. But when he came to Canada in 1952 to escape his war torn country of birth, Korea, the Canadian customs and immigration officials misheard his name and recorded it as Han Choo Lee. He never spoke to the mistake, and it wasn’t until the early 1990s that we even knew his name was Hanju. It was at this time that he had made contact with his surviving family members who had been stuck in the North, and they corresponded regularly by mail until my Dad’s passing in 2004. But every letter that came, it was addressed to Hanju Lee, not Han Choo Lee. My Mom asked why this was the case, and my Dad responded, “Because that’s my name. I never asked my Dad why he didn’t correct them, but I assume it was because it was a very different time in the 1950s, where people, especially people of colour, didn’t question government. So upon learning this, I decided I wanted to honour the name his parents gave him, and so I became Steven Hanju Lee.
What brings you to KPU? What is the goal of your education here (certificate, degree, teaching, healthcare, etc.?
I first studied at Kwantlen University College twenty years ago, when I completed a diploma in Marketing Management, and a certificate in Business Management. At this time I ended up working for the Kwantlen Student Association, organizing events, and I ended up doing that for just over a decade. When I first started at the KSA, I helped the organization create representatives on its board for students who traditionally had trouble accessing post secondary education, and one of those positions was a First Nations Liaison alongside 4 other positions, which was later expanded to 7. My job wasn’t all events though, at one point I helped fight a group of students who took over the Association to line their pockets with student money: they literally setup schemes like shell companies to funnel money out of the million dollar organization. It was a fight that went to the Supreme Court of BC, where a court ordered election was called and the other students were given the boot. As the Association was cleaned up, it expanded by creating The Runner, and many other programs.
More recently, I came back to Kwantlen to do a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and I’m very close to finishing that. Creating art and telling stories is something I’ve always enjoyed, and I’ve played with a variety of mediums including drawing, painting, performance art, photography, and sculpture to explore themes related to the environment as well as to portrayals of the self. When it comes to portrayals of the self, I’ve tried to maintain a daily subverted selfie project on Instagram, where I don’t shy away from exploring my struggles with anxiety, diabetes, high blood pressure, and major depressive disorder. This year, I also had a stroke on January 31 which left me hospitalized for a chunk of February. I find so many people on social media do their best to curate their lives as being perfect, when in reality, no one’s life is perfect. We all have our flaws and struggles, and it should be okay to share that.
Where do you come from?
I was born in Williams Lake, and my family lived there for the first 12 years of my life. I mentioned my father was Korean, and he married a Caucasian Canadian woman, my mother, at a time when interracial relationships and marriages were still illegal in many parts of the United States. They eventually tried to have children, but couldn’t conceive - so they adopted me, before I was even born. I’m grateful for them doing that, and for the life they gave me.
I know who my biological Mother was, although I never met her. I did recently make contact with a half-sister, who has been incredibly kind and supportive. I know my birth Mother’s lineage traces back to a William Pinchbeck, a colonial settler who took as his wife, the daughter of Chief Will’ium, Chulminick. The city of Williams Lake is actually named after Chief Will’ium, my Great, Great, Great Grandfather. According to their website, “The Williams Lake First Nation (WLFN), or the T’exelcemc (people of WLFN) have belonged to the Secwepemc (or Shuswap) Nation for over 6500 years” (Williams Lake First Nation), and this week the federal government of Canada formally apologized to them for the lands that were taken from them. It’s always bothered me to a degree that I probably shouldn’t exist - that my life comes from a series of events wherein my Great, Great, Great Grandmother was likely forced into her marriage by a stranger from a far away land who just took her for himself.
I don’t really talk about this much. A few years ago I took the IDEA class on myth, and one project we did involved researching our ancestry - so I traced back the lives of both my biological Mother and my adopted parents (I have no knowledge about my biological Father, as I was the product of an affair). I don’t speak to my biological lineage publicly, as I wasn’t raised within the WLFNs community. I’m also fairly removed from my ancestors, by three generations. In regards to this, I’m aware of situations such as one’s representative of US Senator Elizabeth Warren, who claimed to have First Nations ancestry, although it turned out she was 6-10 generations removed, and she was criticized for it. Had it turned out she had no lineage, she would have been labeled a “pretendian,” which Wikipedia describes as being “…a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by claiming to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation, or to be descended from Native ancestors… As a practice, being a pretendian is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation, especially if that individual then asserts that they can represent, and speak for, communities they do not belong to” (“Pretendian”).
In the report I did for the IDEA class on mythology, I remember lamenting that even though I’m proud of my connections to European, First Nations, and Korean lineages, I also feel that I don’t really belong to any of them. My adopted Dad was the only Korean in Williams Lake, so I grew up speaking English and I never really learned much about his culture. My adopted Mother, like my Dad, had escaped a childhood horror created by some awful family members - so there was a disconnect there as well. I’m excited I’ve touched base with my half sister though, as she seems to have some connection with the WLFN, so I’m eager to learn more about that aspect of my life in the future.
What have you learned about Indigenous peoples in the past?
As a child, I remember our elementary school took us to visit the Alkali Lake First Nations. know they are a people who have suffered many heartbreaking injustices. There was discussion about how many members were struggling to overcome addiction, and the abuses suffered at residential schools. I thought about that a lot recently, having read the novel by Richard Wagamese, and seen the feature film that was made from it, INDIAN HORSE, in one or Dr Paul Tyndall’s English courses on film studies here at Kwantlen. It’s executive produced by Clint Eastwood, who himself is a Republican Conservative, so I like to encourage people online to watch, those who deny that injustices took place at the residential schools. It’s usually people who are conservative who deny it, which is why I like to emphasize Eastwood’s involvement (another film I encourage them to watch is RABBIT PROOF FENCE, as it shows how these injustices took place across the globe).
In University, I’ve had several classes with some amazing students who are from local First Nations. Roxanne Charles, finished her fine arts degree with a minor in anthropology and she’s become a very close friend, who I’ve also been fortunate enough to show artwork with. She’s a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores many of the injustices First Nations have faced. She works hard at building bridges within First Nations communities across the province. She’s also one of the kindest people I know, who works hard to maintain a positive attitude even when times are tough. I remember in a performance art course we took together she recreated the ceremony of giving thanks to the Earth and the Land before stripping part of a Cedar tree for bark used in weaving. Care and attention is taken with that process, so as not to permanently harm the trees. The reverence taken is beautiful, and something everyone should do - to give thanks, and leave the Earth a better place than you found it.
Is there specific focus or something you are interested in learning most in this course?
The connection to the land is something I’ve always found fascinating, the respect and reverence for it is something I’d love to learn more about. In Dr Lee Beavington’s IDEA 1100 class we read BRAIDING SWEETGRASS which touched upon this as a major theme, and it’s one that I think I’ve barely even touched the surface with.
I’d also like to learn more about countering the myths perpetuated by those on the right. For example, some argue that First Nations would war amongst and conquer each other violently before colonial settlers came.
“See, when they got off the boat, they didn’t recognize us. They said, ‘Who are you?’
And we said, ‘We’re the people. We’re the human beings.’
And they said, ‘Oh, Indians.’ Because they didn’t recognize what it meant to be a human being.”
‘I’m a human being. This is the name of my tribe. This is the name of my people, but I am a human being.’
But the predatory mentality shows up, and starts calling us Indians, and committing genocide against us as a vehicle of erasing the memory of being a human being. So, they used warped textbooks, history books, and when film came along, they used film too. You go into our own communities, how many of us are fighting to protect our own idea of being an Indian. And six hundred years ago that word ‘Indian,’ that sound was never made in this hemisphere. That sound, that noise, was never, ever made. Ever. And we’re trying to protect that as an identity. So, it affects all of us. It’s reached a point evolutionary speaking, we’re starting to not recognize ourselves as human beings. Because we’re too busy trying to protect the idea of a Native American, or an Indian. But we’re not Indians, and we’re not Native Americans. We’re older than both concepts. We’re the people. We’re the human beings.”
John Trudell, Lakota Activist / Poet (Reel Injun 42:22-43:53)
I LEARN BEST ACTIVITY
To help Len understand how to best support all students this course to help you be successful and get the most out of your learning, please answer the following:
What helps you learn online?
Having taken several Coursera classes, I enjoy a mix of activities - from watching videos, to short readings, as well as activities that explore the ideas being discussed including creative exploration, written reflection, and even short quizzes.
What prevents you from learning online?
In the past, my anxiety and depression have left me paralyzed, and when that happens I retreat from my responsibilities and routines. That’s been the biggest thing preventing me from learning.
What do you want Len to know about you?
I’m going to do my best not to get paralyzed this term. I did have a stroke earlier this year, but I’ve been in physiotherapy for it. I also hurt my feet in July and my right foot wasn’t healing properly, and I went to the ER on August 14. Since then I’ve been on daily antibiotics by IV as I had a bad infection. One doctor wanted to amputate some of my toes but thankfully the other doctors were willing to do wound therapy which seems to be working!
WEEK 01 WORKS CITED
“Pretendian.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation, 08 Jan 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretendian.
Trudell, John, interviewee. Reel Injun. Directed by Neil Diamond / Jeremiah Hayes / and Catherine Bainbridge, Rezolution Pictures / National Film Board of Canada, 2009.
Williams Lake First Nation. www.wlfn.ca. Accessed 09 Sep 2023.
This week’s assignment can also be viewed in PDF format.