Meet Founder

Publisher & Writer & Painter
Consultant Ethnographer at Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology
Ethnographer at Living Heritage Research Council
Former Museum Ambassador at NMAI
   

Heather is Indigenously from South Korea, the land of mountain people. She grew up surrounded by the mountains and hills, listening to stories about spirits and lives on those wonderful curves of Earth. When she was 19, she went to the land of the  Haudenosaunee for college where she studied anthropology, American Indian studies, and Africana studies. She continued her studies about Indigenous peoples of North America at the University of Arizona on Tohono O'odham land where she was a researcher working with a number of Native American nations on federally and tribally supported projects.

She confesses that learning Native American cultures and philosophies completely changed her perspectives on our histories and the contemporary world we live in. It was thanks to the teachings of Native American elders and friends she has been fortunate to work with that all the stories she heard growing up in her native land made sense ever more clearly and were no longer just some mythical narratives. 

As the very first generation of Koreans based in the U.S. studying about and working closely with Native Americans, Heather feels the responsibility to become a reliable bridge between Native Americans and her own people that she deeply cares for. She also wants to challenge the popular worldviews which she finds severely Westernized and prioritize certain modes of thoughts over others.

A believer of the power of books in transforming peoples' thoughts and hearts, Heather chose books as a medium to bring her vision to life. After years of ideation and dreaming, Heather started Hyphen Reads Books, now transformed as HRB, hoping to be a small yet meaning part of a larger decolonizing endeavor —together with you all!