Writing Through Time with Larry Grant, Scott Steedman, and Sarah Ling

This opening event features readings and an intimate discussion of Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong (2025), a powerful personal and historical account by Larry Grant, a Musqueam-Chinese Elder, whose life story unfolds at the intersection of identity, place, and belonging.

Born in 1936 near Vancouver to a Musqueam cultural leader and a Chinese immigrant from Guangdong, Larry Grant and his siblings were stripped of their Indigenous status in 1940 after their mother married a non-status man. This act forcibly severed their legal recognition as Indigenous. In Reconciling, Larry reflects on his life and on reconciliation as an ongoing, unfinished process shaped by colonial history, migration, and resilience. Told through a series of conversations with writer Scott Steedman, the book traces pivotal sites including the Musqueam reserve, Chinatown, the Mission Residential School site, the Vancouver docks, and the University of British Columbia, weaving together stories of Indigenous traditions and Chinese migration.

This program will also include select excerpts from the documentary on Larry Grant's family, All Our Father’s Relations (2016), produced by Sarah Ling, the moderator, which explores the lesser-known history between the Musqueam Nation and early Chinese migrants. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this award-winning film, which has been screened nationally and globally.

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