Becoming the Change: Carlee Leon on Culture, Transformation, and Future Generations

Every generation inherits something from those who came before them.

Teachings. Stories. Responsibilities. Relationships. Ways of knowing and being. We also inherit the impacts of the systems and circumstances that shaped the lives of previous generations.

But inheritance does not only move in one direction.

What we choose to carry, strengthen, protect, and create today will become part of what future generations inherit from us.

For Carlee Leon of Katzie First Nation, this understanding is intergenerational and deeply connected to her cultural work and the person she hopes to become. Her work invites her to think not only about what her ancestors have passed on to her, but about what she will one day pass on to her descendants.

At the centre of that hope is something simple and powerful: authenticity.

“Something I hope future generations will inherit because of the work I’m doing today is authenticity. I am very hopeful that the next generations won’t feel the need to be ashamed of their identity and expressing who they are.” — Carlee Leon

Creating a future where Indigenous youth can be themselves

Carlee sees change happening. There is greater visibility of Indigenous Peoples, cultures, voices, and experiences than there was when her parents were young, or even when she was growing up. Indigenous communities continue to create and reclaim space for culture, identity, language, teachings, and ways of being to be carried forward and celebrated.

For Carlee, that visibility matters because of what it can make possible for the generations coming next.

She imagines a future where young Indigenous people do not have to wonder whether it is safe to share who they are. A future where they are not made to question whether they are “Indigenous enough.” A future where Indigenous identity is not something that needs to be hidden, explained, or proven.

“I believe that my future children won’t have to worry about the people around them finding out they’re Indigenous or whether they’re ‘Indigenous enough.’”

Creating that future requires more than celebrating Indigenous identity. It also means transforming the conditions that have made Indigenous Peoples feel they must hide, defend, or prove who they are.

Carlee’s hope points toward a future where Indigenous Peoples can live authentically, and where Indigenous identities, cultures, and ways of being are respected and celebrated.

Guided by those who came before

One of the teachings Carlee carries closely is Katzie’s next of kin teachings, which she describes as doing things out of gratitude and respect for our ancestors.

“A teaching that really motivates me in cultural work is Katzie’s next of kin teachings, doing things out of gratitude and respect for our ancestors.”

Next of Kin is a Katzie teaching and fundamental law that expresses the close and enduring relationship between Katzie people, their ancestors, and all life within Katzie Territory. It understands ancestors, lands, waters, animals, plants, and all living beings as close relations within an interconnected network of kinship. At its heart is the understanding that relationship creates responsibility, to care for and protect these relations in honour of those who came before and the generations yet to come.

These teachings are not something Carlee only thinks about while doing cultural work. They have become part of how she moves through everyday life.

She thinks about them while participating in cultural activities. She carries them into her work. She even finds herself thinking about them while doing the dishes. They remind her that what she carries today did not begin with her.

Knowledge, culture, values, and teachings have been carried across generations so that she can hold them today. Recognizing that brings gratitude, but it also brings responsibility.

“It helps me remember how fortunate I am for all that my ancestors have passed on for generations, reminding me to keep those teachings alive, and think about how I can be a good ancestor for my descendants.”

The idea of being a good ancestor offers a powerful way to think about responsibility.

It asks us to consider not only what has been passed down to us, but what we are preparing to leave behind.

What are we strengthening for the next generation? What are we protecting? What teachings and values are we carrying forward? What kind of relationships are we creating?

And perhaps most importantly: What will future generations inherit because of the way we choose to live today?

More on Next of Kin

Next of Kin is a Katzie teaching and fundamental law that expresses the close and enduring relationship between Katzie people, our ancestors, and all life within Katzie Territory.

The teaching intentionally challenges colonial understandings of ancestors as people who belong to a distant or disconnected past. Within a Katzie worldview, our ancestors are not far removed from us. They remain close relations, connected to the lands and waters they lived upon, the lives they carried, and the generations who continue after them. They are, quite literally, our next of kin.

This understanding of kinship extends beyond human relationships. The lands, waters, air, animals, plants, and other living beings within Katzie Territory are not separate from us, nor are they simply resources to be managed or used. They exist within a living network of relationships to which Katzie people belong.

To understand these relations as Next of Kin is therefore to recognize both belonging and responsibility. As the generation living today, we inherit a primary responsibility to care for, protect, and maintain good relations with the lands, waters, living beings, and ancestors of Katzie Territory. This responsibility is not only for our own benefit but also for those who came before us and for the generations who will follow.

Next of Kin reminds us that relationship creates responsibility: when the land, water, living beings, and ancestors are understood as kin, caring for them is not an act of stewardship from a distance, it is an obligation to family.

Being the change you want to see

For Carlee, thinking about future generations also means looking inward.

There are many things she hopes will change in the world: more care, more love for the Earth, greater acceptance, stronger relationships, and a deeper commitment to creating good.

But wanting change and living that change are different things.

“There are a million things I could say about how people could make the world a better place, how there needs to be more care, how the Earth really needs our love, and much more, but all of the things I have to say would mean nothing if I wasn’t making sure that I am also acting towards that good.”

This is where transformation becomes personal.

“When it comes to self-transformation, I see it as becoming closer to the person you want to be, coming a step closer to looking in the mirror and being proud of what you see and all you have done.”

Rather than waiting for change to happen somewhere else, Carlee considers what she can contribute through the way she lives, works, cares, and relates to others.

Her reflections remind us that transformation does not always begin with a sweeping gesture. It can begin in the choices we make each day: how we care for one another, how we carry teachings forward, how we respond to what we learn, and how closely our actions reflect the future we say we want.

Being the change is not a single act. It is something we practice.

Transformation can happen in a classroom

Carlee describes transformation as creating change for good.

Through her cultural work, she has the opportunity to witness that change regularly.

When she first enters a classroom, students can sometimes be hesitant. They may be quiet, unsure of what to say, or afraid to ask questions.

Then the room begins to change. Students start asking questions. They share their own experiences and make connections with what Carlee is teaching. Curiosity grows. By the end of a session, the same students who may have begun quietly are often eager to keep the conversation going.

“By the end of the class the kids are a lot more eager, asking endless questions, telling me about their experiences with the things I talk about, and not wanting the session to end.”

These moments might seem small, but something much bigger is taking place within them.

Young people are being invited into a different relationship with Indigenous cultures, histories, and peoples, one shaped by learning, curiosity, connection, and living Indigenous presence.

For Carlee, witnessing this transformation gives her hope that Indigenous Peoples are increasingly being understood through a fuller story: one that does not erase the realities and ongoing impacts of colonialism and trauma, but also refuses to define Indigenous Peoples by those harms alone.

“Seeing this transformation almost daily is something that makes me feel insanely lucky for the work I do, and it makes me hopeful that Indigenous peoples are starting to be seen for more than our trauma.”

There is power in that shift.

Education can challenge what people have been taught—or what they were never taught in the first place. It can make room for new relationships and understandings. And when that learning is carried forward, its impact can extend far beyond a single classroom.

Becoming good ancestors

We are descendants. We are also future ancestors.

Carlee’s hope is that future generations inherit authenticity: the freedom to know who they are, express who they are, and feel pride in where they come from. Somewhere between those two truths is an invitation: to live with gratitude for what has been carried to us, responsibility for what we carry today, and care for what we will leave behind.

Because the future is not only something we inherit. It is also something we help create.