Children of Denial

photo of Larry Grant
Elder Larry Grant

with Elder Larry Grant

  • Elder-in-Residence, First Nations House of Learning, UBC
  • Language and cultural consultant, Musqueam Nation

21 March 2016
at the University of Victoria

During this talk, Elder Larry Grant will reflect on his challenges growing up of Musqueam and Chinese ancestry. He will discuss how self-respect, identity, and human rights have been denied to Indigenous children through government legislation, and how social issues such as these continue to exist today.

The official trailer for All Our Father’s Relations, a documentary film that he is participating in along with his siblings, will be screened as well.   

About Larry Grant

Elder Larry Grant was born and raised in Musqueam traditional territory by a traditional hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam family. Larry’s father came from the Guangdong province of China, and worked on one of the Chinese market gardens formerly at Musqueam Indian Reserve 2. After 4 decades as a tradesman, Larry enrolled in the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program at UBC, which awoke his memory of the embedded value that the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language has to self-identity, kinship, culture, territory, and history prior to European contact. He is presently assisting in revitalizing hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ in the Musqueam Language and Culture Department, and co-teaching the introductory hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ course as an Adjunct Professor in the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program.

Larry is the Elder-in-Residence at UBC’s First Nations House of Learning. He is a Faculty Fellow at St. John’s College, and the inaugural Honorary Life Fellow for Green College. In 2010, he received the Alumni Award of Distinction from Vancouver Community College, and in 2014, he became an Honorary Graduate from UBC’s Native Indian Teacher Education Program.

Presented in Memory of Neil Burton (1941-2010)

A long-time advocate for closer Asia-Canada relations, Neil went to China as part of the first Canada-China student exchange in 1973. He lived in China for eight years and then in Japan for eighteen years before returning to Canada in 1990. Neil taught at Sophia University, the University of Toronto and at UVic. A commemorative fund has been established in honour of Neil’s many contributions.