Revitalizing Indigenous language
Language is essential to cultural identity. The health of the Nsyilxcn language is linked to the wellbeing of the Okanagan Syilx people — and in healing from colonization. That’s why Dr. Jeannette Armstrong (LLD’06) has dedicated herself to recovering and improving access to the wealth of language knowledge in oral stories. She also helped to create the UBC Okanagan’s Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency, which marks a first for Canadian universities. Learn about the inspiring accomplishments of Dr. Armstrong at this webinar that illustrates how we can ensure encouraging futures for Indigenous languages, cultures, and people.
Want a preview? Watch Dr. Jeannette Armstrong’s talk at the THINK FORWARD event held on September 24, 2022.
Moderator
Rudy Kelly (he/him) – Host of “The Urbariginal” podcast, Associate Producer and Ts’msyen Reporter, CBC Prince Rupert
Speaker
Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, LLD’06 hc — Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UBC’s Okanagan campus
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
12:00pm–1:00pm PT
Online
Open to all UBC alumni and friends. Registration is required.
REGISTER NOWQuestions? Please contact alumni.events@ubc.ca.
Moderator Biography
Rudy Kelly
Rudy Kelly, from the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation, has been with CBC since February 2022. He also serves as community outreach coordinator for the BC First Nations Justice Council. A writer, first and foremost, Rudy published his first novel All Native, in 2022. Set in Prince Rupert in the 1960s to early 1980s, All Native is a story of North Coast First Nations, a father, two boys, and the legendary basketball tournament that binds them. His education and work backgrounds are primarily in journalism, marketing, and public administration.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, LLD’06 hc
Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, Syilx Okanagan, is an associate professor in Indigenous Studies and Canada Research Chair in Syilx Okanagan Philosophy. Her PhD is in Inter-discipline Indigenous Littératures and Environmental Ethics from the University of Greifswald. Her research in Indigenous philosophies and Okanagan Syilx thought and environmental ethics coded into Syilx oral literatures has been recognized locally and globally. She is a recipient of the Eco Trust USA Buffett Award in Indigenous Leadership and serves on Canada’s Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Subcommittee of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). She was recently named to the Class of 2021 as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada.
We acknowledge that UBC’s campuses are situated within the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wu7mesh (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and in the traditional, ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples.
THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE PRESENTING PARTNERS OF FORWARD: THE CAMPAIGN FOR UBC
THE ALUMNI UBC PILLAR PARTNERS
