Seven months ago, with “an open heart and an open mind” as today’s featured creative would put it, I began an exciting new role as Associate Artistic Administrator at The ACT. I joined the team mid-exhibition during the incredibly impactful and thought-provoking Picturing Ourselves. As a portrait artist, myself, I took this portraiture exhibition as a sign from a greater power that I am in the right place at the right time.
This exhibition made me deeply reflect on my role as an artist and the way I want my practice to grow in its celebration of others. I spent many precious months touring school children through the gallery as we explored the works of Odera Igbokwe, Jake Kimble, Gloria Wong, Cara Guri, and the subject of today’s portrait of gratitude, Len Pierre.
Len Pierre is Coast Salish from the Kazie First Nation and shows up for his community and others in so many incredible ways. A few of the roles he has taken on in his work include traditional knowledge sharer, social activist, consultant, educator, and that is just to start! This is a man with deep purpose and a drive to show up for both the people around him and the land that nurtures him.
The work Len shared with the ACT Art Gallery was comprised of photography pieces developed by his consultancy company, Len Pierre Consulting, in a series called A New Legacy Project. This project was a response to a number of significant events including the critically important and equally devastating news that was brought to light in 2021 when the mass unmarked graves of 215 missing Indigenous children were recovered at the Kamloops Residential Indian School.
I look back to that time and remember the intense emotions and shame I felt upon that discovery and the abrupt disappearance of any modicum of national pride that existed within me. I was a shell of a human and relied heavily on escapism to cope—riddled with guilt and drowning in hopeless inaction. That is part of the reason I am so in awe of Len. I cannot imagine the way receiving this news felt for an Indigenous person because as a white settler of so-called-Canada, I was deeply impacted and disturbed to the point of despair and inability; Meanwhile, this incredible advocate and social activist from the Katzie First Nation responded to this collective pain with a fearless act of love despite all the intense barriers that overcome our emotions and actions in moments of shock like that. I so deeply admire him for that and will passionately follow his work and listen to his teachings going forth, now and always.
A New Legacy Project is so important for a multitude of reasons, but I can say with confidence that taking these works in is a welcomed perspective-challenging experience for anyone who is coming from a settler-based perspective. This body of works proudly celebrates that Indigenous legacy is not something lost to the past but something happening now and can be actively celebrated and engaged with by all. It isn’t a story defined solely by loss; it is a story of resilience, resistance, and success and one that was such a pleasure to share with grade students on each gallery tour.
However much I loved to talk to students about Len’s work, as I have heard him put it “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.” As I was learning more about this incredible project, I had to dig deeper and see the body of work in full. In doing so, I happened across a lovely coincidence. While viewing the rest of the portraits that weren’t included in the ACT installation, I found my new friend Lainie Leon among them. It is a funny thing, because I had been a fan of her jewelry since before I joined the ACT, but through my role, I got to admire and promote her work, and finally met her in person over a lovely gallery chit-chat. I had been meaning to do her portrait (posting soon) for a while, but I see Len got there first!
That brings me to one of the most important influences Len has had on me during these last number of months: considering how I can share the Indigenous learnings I discover on my personal journey of understanding. I am a serial over-thinker and for the longest time, I faced a mental block where I was frozen stiff in fear of tokenizing the Indigenous folks I meet and learn from. Personal efforts of understanding and decolonizing my practice (in my overwhelmed and eager mind) looked like a grand gesture in presenting and offering my project to the First Nations whose lands I create on. Continually being stuck in those thoughts and sizing up the mountain of overwhelming actions left me with little progression on my knowledge sharing. Seeing Len celebrate the folks he chose to celebrate based on how they show up for their community reminded me of the reason I do my portraiture in the first place.
Around a month ago, I was lucky enough to be working from home alongside my partner when she happened to be sitting in on a presentation by Len Pierre and his consultancy. Was I ever fortunate to be a fly on that wall. Len shared much knowledge on the topic of Indigenous Cultural Safety and with one particular piece of precious knowledge, he provided me a much longed for “aha” moment. Over the years, I have found myself caught in inaction because I was working in the pressurized, “productive” and Western Chronos way of measuring time—that is, quantitative and measured (like the ticking of a clock). I have battled the constant challenge of having so many portraits to share, but not enough time to write about all of them. Len introduced me to the concept of Kairos Time. That is a Greek phrase for qualitative time that honours the critical or opportune moment. Len shared that this is a core concept in Coast Salish Nations. That reframing is exactly what Drawing Thanks needs. I never want it to feel like a race to create content for the sake of keeping up with the portraiture. I would rather revel in that qualitative time I get to share with the people who inspire my portraits. I understand that there is value in sharing the knowledge I gain, but it feels less overwhelming to reframe the process as an opportunity to deep-listen to the world around me and share the stories that feel opportune and critical in the moment. I am so grateful for Len and his gentle reminder to measure my success by the quality of the relationships around me.
Thanks, Len.
To check out more of Len’s work follow these thought provoking links below,
A New Legacy Project (blog post)
Redefining Disability with Lise Giles (podcast)
How to Book (web page)
This portrait and accompanying blog post were created with love and gratitude on the unceeded territories of the Katzie First Nation and Kwantlen First Nation.