En’owkin Centre, (Okanagan Indian Educational Resources Society).
Background and objective
Nsyilxcn adult language revitalization is a vital aspect of the work of the Okanagan Syilx people through research associated with the En’owkin Centre (an Adult Higher Learning Centre) and their Post Secondary partner, the University of British Columbia Okanagan, (UBCO) in collaboration with UBCO’s Institute for Community Engaged Research (ICER). Nsyilxcn, one of Canada’s most endangered languages, and has less than 250 fluent mother tongue speakers. Most projects concentrate on in-school, pre-school and classroom instruction programs. Fewer projects focus on much needed recovery of the language into practical contemporary use. Chiefs of the Seven Okanagan Syilx reservations committed to recover and assert the governance laws of the Syilx people on their lands through the reinstitution of the customary laws expressed in the Nsyilxcn language and Chiefs stories.
The proposed project is a critical process in the recovery of the indigenous ways of knowing. The Chiefs of the Osoyoos Indian Band, Penticton Indian Band, Upper and Lower Similkameen Indian Band, Upper Nicola Indian Band, Westbank First Nation, Okanagan Indian Band, require intensive sessions to study knowledge in the nsyilxcn language for applications in legal protections and management of the land’s lifeforce (tmixw) within the goal to enhance governance of Syilx traditional territory. The scope will focus on 10 captikwl of the main “Story Chiefs” and their meaning in Syilx/Okanagan laws and customs associated with them.
Local partner information
The En’owkin Centre was founded in 1979 and incorporated in 1983 in British Columbia as a not-for-profit Society, mandated by the Seven Reservations of the Okanagan Syilx Nation, who each elect members to the Okanagan Indian Educational Resources Society (OIERS) Board of Directors. The En’owkin Centre is a designated ‘First Nation Cultural Centre’ supported by the National Cultural Centres Program of Indian Northern Affairs Canada. Culture and arts practice at En’owkin is supported through an array of programs, projects and activities, including, training, dissemination and advocacy.
