Inspiration – Steven Stark
On the big screen at IPSS 2023, a video is playing. In it, a man introduces himself as Steven Stark of the Tsawwassen First Nation.
Chief Ian Campbell and Steven Stark at the 2023 Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase.
“I've been asked over the years to share my story in many forms,” says the man on the screen. “And I have shared it in all types of open meetings and discussions and awareness. And I think it's important to share the story as it unfolds. I've been asked over the years to make a documentary about what has happened to me and the years of living on the streets and my years of addictions and where I am today.”
He continues: “You know, it's a story that needs to be told. And I have talked about it before, that addiction needs to be talked about. Trauma needs to be talked about. Sexual abuse does need to be talked about. I would hope that my story will inspire others.”
Before the video has even finished playing, conference attendees are applauding. They rise from their seats in a standing ovation.
Onstage, Steven Stark is visibly emotional – moved by the audience’s reaction, and by the documentary trailer, which he has just seen for the first time.
Stark, now a successful entrepreneur and businessman, who has also served four terms as an elected representative of the Tsawwassen First Nation, had to overcome significant challenges to get where he is today.
As a child, Stark endured emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. His family moved frequently, sometimes up to three times a year. “So, constantly displaced, no sense of identity, no compass bearing as well,” he says.
After dropping out of high school, he got involved with using and dealing hard drugs. More than a decade of addiction, and at times, homelessness, followed.
“I've lived two worlds. I've lived a world of addiction, and prior to treaty, I was negatively impacting my own community by bringing drugs in and selling it to my own members or allowing drug dealers in and being that gateway. And I'm not proud of it. But there was a turning point as well when I was able to flip that leaf over and make a different direction. And that was the most difficult point that I had to do, because getting clean in your own community after negatively impacting it is extremely difficult, considering most of them are your family and close relatives as well.”
Stark credits Ken Baird for helping him change course. Baird served three terms in the Tsawwassen Legislature and one on its executive council, before being elected Chief in 2019—a position he held until he passed away in 2022 after a battle with cancer.
“He was instrumental in helping change my life. And a dear friend, father figure, and a mentor. Today, I’m here to help celebrate him as well. I live my life the best I can through him, in honoring the commitment that I made to him back 17 years ago when he allowed me in his home.”
Drawing Change Illustration by Erica Bota.
When Stark was 26, Baird presented him with the opportunity to live with him, so long as he met four conditions. Stark was to pay $200 for food every month and help with chores around the house. Because Baird was a single dad at the time, Stark was also to help with the kids.
“And he said, ‘As long as you live here, you go to two meetings every day.’ And I lived with him for five years.
“He gave me a safe place. He gave me a home, he gave me a friendship, he gave me a father figure. And I wasn't about to just let that opportunity slip away. And so, you know, five years of going to meetings every single day. And transforming my life and changing the thought process and trying to be a bit more forgiving and understanding and also rooting myself into the community.”
Stark tells of a time, early into his sobriety, when he relapsed.
“I had to go humbly drag in my head to let Ken know. Because I wanted to let him know, because I wanted to be trustworthy in a relationship, and he was allowing me to live in his house. And he just simply looked at me with…a look. And he just said, ‘If you keep relapsing, nobody's going to help you.’ And I knew at that moment that if I did it again, I was probably going to lose the best opportunity of my life, in the safest place that I could change my life and move forward.”
Stark also links his ability to get, and stay, clean to the treaty process that the Nation was undertaking at the time.
“My success isn't only just mine, it's the success of Tsawwassen First Nation and the treaty that has brought the opportunity for us as well.”
The Tsawwassen Nation's treaty came into effect in 2009; the Nation was the first in the province to sign under the BC treaty process. Through the agreement, the Nation received several financial settlements, as well as reclaiming direct ownership and control of an additional 724 hectares of land, with uses including agricultural, industrial, commercial, and residential. The partnerships that the Nation has since negotiated have resulted in developments such as the Tsawwassen Mills retail mall, a 10-acre Amazon shipping warehouse, and residential developments that will eventually house up to 15,000 people.
Stark says that through the treaty, “the Tsawwassen government became wealthy in equitable opportunities and income for the land.”
In 2011, Stark started a business, Stark Transportation. The company initially offered marine services for environmental and fisheries research, but has since evolved, under the new name Tsawwassen Shuttles Inc., to offer shuttle, marine, sweeping, and watering services. In recent years he also started another company, Two Worlds Transportation.
Stark says his business success results from his being tenacious, understanding and “very gentle in business.” He sees every day as an opportunity.
“Every conversation I have with somebody is actually an opportunity for me to get to know them and build a strong, rooted relationship. And that's really where my success comes from. It comes from that honesty and that connection that we have. And many of the other people in this room, if anybody has known me, they know I'm very social and I'm very genuine in my words and I'll give a lot of time to people. I'm very direct and have always been that way. And that is the biggest success for me. Those relationships have carried me over the goalpost more times than I can even imagine.”
He has also moved back to the Nation’s lands after being able to finance and build a home.
“I'd moved away from TFN for a number of years, and, as a result of that, I wasn't able to come back because there was no housing available. And that's a lot of Indigenous communities. Once you're off, you can't get back, right? Because there isn't enough housing available. And so, we're seeing a rise in housing in all Nations right now, and that's a big, big push. And my hands are up to every Nation that's now focusing on that.
“Now we have dozens of members coming back to home. We’re building new housing complexes and, you know, we could almost house every single band member to come back home now, because we keep pushing forward and changing policies and finding opportunities.”
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