Reconciling ~ Elder Larry Grant and Scott Steedman

This is a Free In-Person Event at Banyen Books in Vancouver.

Join Musqueam-Chinese Elder Larry Grant, Elder-in-residence at UBC’s First Nations House of Learning, and publishing veteran Scott Steedman for a special in-store Talk, Q&A, and Signing celebrating their new book Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong.

Reconciling is a moving personal and historical memoir told through a series of conversations between Larry and Scott as they revisit pivotal places from Larry’s life including the Musqueam reserve, Chinatown, the Vancouver docks, and the site of the Mission residential school. Born in 1936 to a Musqueam cultural leader and a Chinese immigrant, Larry was stripped of his Indian status as a child. His life story traces some of the most significant and painful events in Canadian history, from Chinese immigration and the Head Tax to residential schools, disenfranchisement, and the long road to Indigenous cultural revival. Larry frames reconciliation as an ongoing process rather than a finished goal and invites readers to reflect on how we might reconcile with ourselves, with each other, and with the land.

“Musqueam Elder Larry Grant’s intimate eyewitness accounts of huge changes in the region’s landscape and its evolving relationship with his people are a must-read for people who want to join Canada’s journey towards reconciliation.”
― Paul Yee

“Steedman presents Grant’s spoken prose with pristine clarity. Unbearable is our outrage, but necessary is our courage to rectify and reconcile.”
― George Elliott Clarke

“Larry Grant’s life is a model of what it means to rise above hardship, transcend preconceived notions, and live life in a good way… this book makes me feel as if I know him. And that is a profound gift.”
― Shelagh Rogers

Larry Grant is the Elder-in-residence at the Justice Institute of BC and UBC’s First Nations House of Learning. He holds a President’s Medal from UBC and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Simon Fraser University. He lives with his wife on the Musqueam reserve in Vancouver.

Scott Steedman has worked in publishing for over 35 years, with Dorling Kindersley, Larousse, Raincoast, and Douglas & McIntyre. He teaches publishing at Simon Fraser University and is co-author of Art for War and Peace.

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