Our family immigrated from Korea to Canada in 1975. Since then, I have experienced racism throughout much of my life, which has been painful and exhausting. As a theologian, I have reflected on these experiences in my books, sermons and public writing—not because I want to dwell on pain, but because I believe truth-telling is a pathway to healing and justice.
People often say to me, “Racism isn’t that bad” or they ask why I continue to focus so much on racism in my theological work. Yet if we look honestly at human history, we see that racism is behind war, genocide, colonialism and oppression.
It has justified the dehumanization, subjugation and destruction of entire peoples. We only need to look at American history to see the genocide and displacement of Native American peoples, the trafficking and enslavement of African peoples, the indentured labor and exclusion of Asian immigrants and the violent seizure of Mexican land.
Racism is not a minor issue. It is deadly.
Racism destroys lives, cultures and communities. It fractures society and poisons the soul of a nation. That is why we must continue to name it, confront it and dismantle it, especially during this month.
Each November, communities across the United States observe Native American Heritage Month, a time to honor the rich cultures, traditions and immeasurable contributions of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian peoples. We cannot approach this month as if Native identity belongs to a distant past or exists only in museums, cultural festivals or history books.
This month must be more than a celebration. It must be a call to justice.
Native peoples are not relics of history. They are living nations, communities and cultures whose ancestors lived on this land for thousands of years before colonization. Native American Heritage Month invites us to uplift Indigenous sovereignty, honor the resilience of Indigenous peoples, confront painful truths and commit ourselves to justice and solidarity.
Many Americans are taught a sanitized, mythologized version of history that glorifies settlers and erases the violence of colonialism. However, the real history includes stolen land through force, coercion, broken treaties and forced removals. These atrocities include the Trail of Tears, the Long Walk and genocide, massacres and systemic cultural destruction.
We also cannot forget the boarding and residential schools that separated children from families, banned Native languages and were the source of generational trauma. We must also acknowledge the criminalization of Native spirituality and culture, which have only been legally protected since 1978.
Today, there is ongoing discrimination, violence and government policy designed to erase Indigenous identity. For Indigenous peoples, this history is not something that is “in the past,” as its consequences continue to shape life today. True commemoration requires acknowledging this history and its ongoing injustice.
Honoring Resilience
Despite centuries of violence and attempted erasure, Indigenous communities have survived, resisted, organized and led movements that have shaped the nation. Native peoples have continued to enhance the arts, environmental stewardship, diplomacy, literature, education, science, governance, medicine and spirituality of this nation.
Today, Indigenous leaders are at the forefront of key justice movements such as climate and environmental justice as they defend land, water and ecosystems from extractive industries.
Climate justice is one of the most important justice issues of our time, and Indigenous people are showing us how to care for God’s creation and each other. In this time of crisis, we must listen to them and live in ways that honor creation and one another.
They are seeking protection for sacred land and sovereignty, resisting corporate and government encroachment. Indigenous knowledge is profoundly practical, ecological and necessary for the survival of our planet. Native wisdom offers guidance for collective healing, sustainable living and relational responsibility to each other and the earth.
Native American Heritage Month reminds us that Indigenous communities today face ongoing systemic inequities that stem from colonization. They have higher rates of poverty, food insecurity, housing precarity, unequal access to healthcare and education, and environmental racism and degradation of Native lands.
And yet Indigenous communities continue to uphold traditions, build institutions and lead with strength, creativity and vision. Honoring heritage means hearing the truth, not romanticized narratives of Native culture, which include resilience, resistance and the ongoing struggle for justice.
Native American Heritage Month must push us toward meaningful solidarity.
Commemoration without justice is hollow; therefore, Native American Heritage Month urges us toward action, repair and solidarity. Honoring Indigenous peoples means joining in the work for justice, sovereignty and healing.
This month offers us an opportunity to recommit ourselves to truth, to right relationship with Indigenous peoples and to imagining a future where Indigenous communities are free to thrive, lead and flourish on their own lands and in their own ways.
Honoring the history, resilience and contributions of Indigenous peoples requires more than celebration. It requires acknowledging the violence and racism that Indigenous communities have endured for centuries and continue to face today.
Racism is not simply a historical wrong but a present reality. Until we address it with honesty, courage and collective action, we cannot move toward true justice, reconciliation or healing.
As we listen, learn and act, may we remember that honoring Native American heritage is about joining Indigenous siblings in the ongoing struggle for dignity, equality and liberation. It is about building a world rooted in justice, truth, mutual respect and shared flourishing.
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