Expert In
Bio/Research
Accountability Statement:
According to my sqilxw ways, personal introductions come before any other words.
Wai, iskwis (my name is) Percy Lezard. I am xatma sqilxw, and my relations are the Lezards in sn’pinkton, the Krugers from Arrow Lakes and the Baptistes from Chopka. As part of...
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According to my sqilxw ways, personal introductions come before any other words.
Wai, iskwis (my name is) Percy Lezard. I am xatma sqilxw, and my relations are the Lezards in sn’pinkton, the Krugers from Arrow Lakes and the Baptistes from Chopka. As part of...
Click to Expand >>
Bio/Research
Accountability Statement:
According to my sqilxw ways, personal introductions come before any other words.
Wai, iskwis (my name is) Percy Lezard. I am xatma sqilxw, and my relations are the Lezards in sn’pinkton, the Krugers from Arrow Lakes and the Baptistes from Chopka. As part of my sqilxw cultural practice, I want to begin my introduction with an acknowledgement of my positionality and responsibilities, in an era across the Academic Industrial complex of race shifters and pretendians it’s important to identify "who I am, who are my people and who claims me."
I am the adult-child of Indian Residential School Survivors, Valerie Lezard and Moses Baptiste and day school survivor, Pierre Kruger.
My maternal grandparents were Indian Residential School Survivors are twi pl̓wic̓ia Elizabeth Lezard (Manual) and naʔł twi stiʔulaʕxʷ Ernest Lezard.
My paternal grandparents were Indian Residential School Survivors are twiʔ Katherine Baptiste (Alec) and naʔł twiʔ George Baptiste.
We are all status First Nations members under the Indian Act of the Penticton Indian Band and are members under our nations custom membership code. As sqilxw people, we have lived on the territory known as the Okanagan Valley since the beginning of people on those lands. My traditional territories stretch from Mica Creek, just north of modern-day Revelstoke, [unceded] British Columbia (BC) and east to Kootenay Lake, south to Washington state and west into the Nicola Valley.
I continue to live as an invited guest on the lands of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples for the past twenty plus years and am responsible to upholding the Dish with One Spoon treaty in my nation-to-nation relations with the caretakers of these territories.
I received my collaborative Ph.D. from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education /University of Toronto (OISE/UT). I received a collaborative Masters from University of Toronto.
I am very grateful to be here in the Laurier Brantford Community where I am being supported to thrive and excel as a critical Indigenous Scholar, prior to joining this scholarly community in 2021, I held an appointment with the Faculty of Social Work at University of Manitoba.
My research orientation is always towards community. It is my responsibility as an Indigenous researcher and Indigenous thinker to disrupt mainstream models of knowledge exraction. I work to re-center Indigenous ways of knowing and being and harness the existing strengths and leadership from Indigenous community members. As a result, I prioritize community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) over single-author papers, and always strive to involve myself in research that has tangible impacts. I have worked as a principle researcher and contributor on many CBPAR projects with social agencies that provide health and service support to Indigenous and 2LGBTQQIA+ communities.
The scope of my current research agenda includes First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Black Indigenous, Afro Indigenous 2 Spirit, Trans, sex-worker, youth, Deaf/Hard of hearing and houseless communities. Research in these areas is increasingly salient, as resources within healthcare must be tailored to fit the unique needs of these communities by service providers.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
- Principle Knowledge User, "Exploring Facilitators, Barriers and
Opportunities to HIV Pre-Exposure prophylaxis access and use among
Urban Indigenous Peoples in the Greater Toronto Area (2024-2025).
- Co Applicant, Transgender Health centering 2QTBIPOC Trans affirming
care, Women & Gender Equality (2020-2022).
- Lead Author, 2 Spirit Council works with Crown-Indigenous Relations and
Northern Affairs Canada to impliment MMIWG2SLGBTTQQOA+ National
Action Plan: Final Report. (2019-2021).
- Culturally safe harm reduction for Indigenous Mental Health workers,
OFIFC (2020-2021).
- 2SLGBTQQIA+ community based research mentoring project, Two Spirit
Project, CBRC, (2019-Present).
- Peer Researcher, Research on Tobacco Reduction in Aboriginal
Communities (RETRAC), Center For Research on Inner City Health, (2015-
2017).
Click to Shrink <<
According to my sqilxw ways, personal introductions come before any other words.
Wai, iskwis (my name is) Percy Lezard. I am xatma sqilxw, and my relations are the Lezards in sn’pinkton, the Krugers from Arrow Lakes and the Baptistes from Chopka. As part of my sqilxw cultural practice, I want to begin my introduction with an acknowledgement of my positionality and responsibilities, in an era across the Academic Industrial complex of race shifters and pretendians it’s important to identify "who I am, who are my people and who claims me."
I am the adult-child of Indian Residential School Survivors, Valerie Lezard and Moses Baptiste and day school survivor, Pierre Kruger.
My maternal grandparents were Indian Residential School Survivors are twi pl̓wic̓ia Elizabeth Lezard (Manual) and naʔł twi stiʔulaʕxʷ Ernest Lezard.
My paternal grandparents were Indian Residential School Survivors are twiʔ Katherine Baptiste (Alec) and naʔł twiʔ George Baptiste.
We are all status First Nations members under the Indian Act of the Penticton Indian Band and are members under our nations custom membership code. As sqilxw people, we have lived on the territory known as the Okanagan Valley since the beginning of people on those lands. My traditional territories stretch from Mica Creek, just north of modern-day Revelstoke, [unceded] British Columbia (BC) and east to Kootenay Lake, south to Washington state and west into the Nicola Valley.
I continue to live as an invited guest on the lands of the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples for the past twenty plus years and am responsible to upholding the Dish with One Spoon treaty in my nation-to-nation relations with the caretakers of these territories.
I received my collaborative Ph.D. from Ontario Institute for Studies in Education /University of Toronto (OISE/UT). I received a collaborative Masters from University of Toronto.
I am very grateful to be here in the Laurier Brantford Community where I am being supported to thrive and excel as a critical Indigenous Scholar, prior to joining this scholarly community in 2021, I held an appointment with the Faculty of Social Work at University of Manitoba.
My research orientation is always towards community. It is my responsibility as an Indigenous researcher and Indigenous thinker to disrupt mainstream models of knowledge exraction. I work to re-center Indigenous ways of knowing and being and harness the existing strengths and leadership from Indigenous community members. As a result, I prioritize community-based participatory action research (CBPAR) over single-author papers, and always strive to involve myself in research that has tangible impacts. I have worked as a principle researcher and contributor on many CBPAR projects with social agencies that provide health and service support to Indigenous and 2LGBTQQIA+ communities.
The scope of my current research agenda includes First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Black Indigenous, Afro Indigenous 2 Spirit, Trans, sex-worker, youth, Deaf/Hard of hearing and houseless communities. Research in these areas is increasingly salient, as resources within healthcare must be tailored to fit the unique needs of these communities by service providers.
Recent and Ongoing Projects
- Principle Knowledge User, "Exploring Facilitators, Barriers and
Opportunities to HIV Pre-Exposure prophylaxis access and use among
Urban Indigenous Peoples in the Greater Toronto Area (2024-2025).
- Co Applicant, Transgender Health centering 2QTBIPOC Trans affirming
care, Women & Gender Equality (2020-2022).
- Lead Author, 2 Spirit Council works with Crown-Indigenous Relations and
Northern Affairs Canada to impliment MMIWG2SLGBTTQQOA+ National
Action Plan: Final Report. (2019-2021).
- Culturally safe harm reduction for Indigenous Mental Health workers,
OFIFC (2020-2021).
- 2SLGBTQQIA+ community based research mentoring project, Two Spirit
Project, CBRC, (2019-Present).
- Peer Researcher, Research on Tobacco Reduction in Aboriginal
Communities (RETRAC), Center For Research on Inner City Health, (2015-
2017).
Click to Shrink <<