On my first days in Bethel there was an article in the Delta Discovery, the local newspaper, about the national census and identity. It noted that the race column in census forms can be confusing because there are many people of mixed race. Indeed, mixed race is quite common in Alaska, as many native Eskimo marry non native people. The columnist further wrote that Jesus of Nazareth would definitely be confused if he had to fill out the census form because he was of mixed race; Jesus is a half breed because his mother is a Jewish woman and his father is the Holy Spirit.

I didn’t think that the mixed race issue (or to be precise, the identity issue) would keep coming my way during my stay in Alaska but it seemed that this was the way that God was going to embrace me during this experiment. My first encounter with the identity issue came when the Jesuit priest in Bethel, Chuck Peterson, introduced me to people around town as, “a Jesuit novice from Indonesia.” This introduction created some sort of confusion because many people thought I had just come directly from Indonesia and they assumed that I was a member of the Indonesian province of the Jesuits. So it was quite common for people to ask me, “When did you arrive from Indonesia?” or “Why did the Indonesian Jesuits send you all the way to Alaska?” Then I had to explain how I am a member of Oregon Province and how I have been living in this country for more than five years and had just flown out of Portland where I’m currently living.

Another time, I had come to dinner at the house of a Yupik Eskimo woman and met some other people who were likewise invited to the meal. One of the guests thought that I was an Eskimo man who had come from another village. This was not so surprising to me because Eskimos look a lot like Asian people, especially Japanese or Korean. It was surprising for them, however, to meet an Asian-looking Jesuit because they are so used to meeting white American Jesuits.

All this goes to suggest that identity issues are very important among the native peoples of Alaska. For example, there is a school in Bethel that is bilingual and uses the native Yup’ik as their main teaching language, that in addition to the American English that is required by the state. Some people are working hard to keep the school running because it is a symbolic bastion of their native identity. However, some others – surprisingly native people – took a stand against the school because they believe that young people should adopt western culture. Interestingly, some white American parents have decided to send their children to the bilingual school.

One day I attended a bilingual school graduation ceremony. One of the teachers was crying when she delivered her speech because she remembered that during her own graduation, her grandparents and parents did not understand any of the English being used and at that time Yupik was not allowed to be spoken in the school.

My experience with the Yupik Eskimo people reminds me about my own struggles. I am a Chinese Indonesian who was born and grew up under one of the darkest moment of Indonesian history; the military government banned all Chinese related identity throughout Indonesia. I was exposed to a little bit of our Chinese immigrant culture but I don’t myself speak Chinese. The Indonesian society and government always consider me as non native despite the fact that my family has been residing in the country for four generations. After I came to the United States for my graduate study, I felt that I became more Indonesian than I had been even in my own country. I can easily identify myself as Indonesian in this foreign land without any need to clarify my non native identity.

Having spent some years in the U.S., I decided to join the Oregon Jesuits and here I am the only Indonesian among a small number of Asians. The dominant culture in this province is still Euro-Caucasian culture, which totally different from my culture and the issue before me is how I can identify myself as a Chinese Indonesian while at the same time be a Jesuit of the Northwest United States.

(to be continued)