Student’s Indian school film selected for SDA festival, NAD series

“Stewards of the Earth,” an eight-minute-33-second documentary delves into the operations and mission of Holbrook, a Seventh-day Adventist elementary and high school boarding school in a rural area of Arizona that offers education, life skills training, native culture instruction, spiritual development, mental and physical wellness support to children from surrounding Navajo Nation.

The school’s stated mission is to provide “a safe place for students to learn, grow, and thrive in Christ,” while helping students reclaim, preserve and celebrate native culture. Classes are taught in Navajo history, government, and language, as well as indigenous arts and hands-on agriculture. It also offers programs in equine-assisted learning and vocational arts.

“One of the biggest challenges is identity,” says Holbrook native culture teacher Sam Hubbard in the video. “A lot of young people don’t like to identify themselves as Native Americans anymore.” He aims to instill in his students a sense of pride about their culture, he says.

Holbrook Indian School has been in operation since 1946, with its roots dating to 1916. It is presently owned by the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists headquartered in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The union provides 20% of its operating funds with 80% derived from donations.

Teo shot the footage for the film as a member of a student missions team organized by La Sierra’s Office of Spiritual Life. The group of 18 students visited the Holbrook campus during Christmas break this school year, providing a range of services including re-painting the school cafeteria, touching up and re-painting elaborate Native American murals. Other activities included demolishing an old, windstorm-damaged greenhouse to make way for a new greenhouse. 

“Both in creativity and in film, and in faith, there was that journey for me, which is especially why I appreciate La Sierra University." – Ezekiel Canaan Teo, videographer, Master of Divinity student

The Holbrook outreach was spearheaded by religious studies student and Office of Spiritual Life missions director Dione ‘Deedee’ Afaese who became acquainted with the Arizona school last year while accompanying her children there on a mission trip. She noticed there was a need for help around the campus, which inspired her coordination of the La Sierra University trip during Christmas break.

La Sierra biology and pre-med student Lia Hutchins was among those who responded to a campus message Afaese distributed to attract outreach participants. Hutchins says in the video she realized the painting and agricultural assistance needed at Holbrook aligned with her hobby interests. “I could easily do one of those and help someone else,” she says, describing her reaction to Afaese’s call to action. 

Teo is hopeful the interactions with Holbrook Indian School will produce a long-term partnership.

The impetus to delve into the life of the Arizona school and tell its story for Teo was multifaceted—he was inspired by the missions-oriented example of former associate chaplain Pono Lopez, now serving as chaplain at Redlands Adventist Academy. And it grew in part out of a curiosity derived from the historically trouble past of Christian indigenous boarding schools from prior generations that stand in contrast with Holbrook’s mission to uplift and empower. And the interest also drew upon a desire to serve, to do missions and help others.

“Just to be there and to be curious and to serve, to see the good things that are being done. I think that was something that really appealed to me about this project,” Teo said.

Teo, who was born in Alabama, spent 10 years of his youth in his cultural home of Singapore where his parents currently live while working for the Seventh-day Adventist Conference there. 

Teo’s faith, filmmaking and worldview bear the influence of his multi-cultural upbringing, which enables his consideration of differing perspectives. His studies at La Sierra University and the divinity school have furthered his ability to think critically, to go deeper and consider other points of view and perspectives while enriching mainstream Adventist theology, he said. 

“I think there’s a deeper awareness for me, the realization that sometimes there is a possibility that two people can be right at the same time, even though they have different perspectives,” he said. “Because life can be nuanced. In ways that we may seem at conflict at the surface level, it may not necessarily be that way if you go a little deeper.

“So I think both in creativity and in film, and in faith, there was that journey for me, which is especially why I appreciate La Sierra University,” he said.

Teo’s mission is to meld his creative abilities with ministry and further carve out a space for himself within the film industry while faithfully re-envisioning, expanding upon and going beyond his denomination’s biggest stories through fresh approaches that inspire curiosity.  

“I frame my life as a quest, searching for truth and following Jesus." – Ezekiel Canaan Teo

“I frame my life as a quest, searching for truth and following Jesus, because truth is not something that can ever fully be held by any one person or group. It’s something that can only be searched for and enriched with others. There is always more to be found. God is always bigger than our image of God.”

He continued, “There’s something our divinity school has been increasingly focused on. It’s called public theology, the idea of bringing the perspectives and the best of our faith in service to the global community. Beyond conventional evangelism, but with the gospel in mind, with our faith in mind, let us be of service to others. I think just to be able to create meaningful and thoughtful content is something I look forward to doing.”

Teo continued, “Technically, you can do anything you want with creativity, but there has always been this intention for me, even in the past, to limit myself and my creativity to spiritually meaningful things. Limiting myself by being deeply spiritually directed, yet doing so in unconventional ways,” he said. “That has kind of been my philosophy from the beginning. So I think to actualize that in a different way, to be [at Sonscreen] as an MDiv student as well, continuing to just kind of toss work in that direction in a slightly more professional capacity, that was really nice.”