Writer focuses on First Nations education
If anyone is deserving of the scholarly term “autochthonous” (something springing from the very ground where it is found), it’s this wise Okanagan elder, knowledge-keeper, writer, teacher, visual artist and activist for indigenous people’s rights. Jeannette Christine Armstrong is a powerful literary voice of conscience for her First Nation, for aboriginal peoples everywhere, for British Columbia and for Canada.
She was born on the Penticton Indian Reserve in 1948 and lives there still. It has been said by some that she was born “into the resistance,” a growing awareness of the importance of traditional culture when federal and provincial institutions sought to force assimilation of Canada’s First Nations by dismantling language, belief systems, ceremonies and traditional economies. Among her direct ancestors were Okanagan storytellers. Her parents encouraged that tradition. She grew up in her own language and got a traditional education from elders as well as a mainstream education that took her from a one-room school to a fine arts degree at the University of Victoria in 1978. Today, she’s fluent in both English and Okanagan.
Perhaps most important, she returned to Penticton from university just as Okanagan leaders decided to make education a priority. They wanted a locally derived curriculum. She helped establish the En’owkin Centre on the Penticton Reserve. A locally-run institution, it fuses First Nations knowledge systems with mainstream practice and functions as a post-secondary centre focusing on native cultural, educational, ecological and creative arts. It partners with the University of Victoria, the University of B.C. and other mainstream educational institutions. Among its objectives is to assist adult learners obtain the skills they need to pursue higher education. But it seeks to frame this within the context of Okanagan culture, history, language and art. Among the initiatives was its association with Theytus Books, now a division of the centre that publishes works by indigenous writers about indigenous culture. It was the first of its kind to be owned and operated by First Nations.
Armstrong’s novel Slash, the story of a young Okanagan man grappling with alienation, racism and identity during a turbulent time of First Nations militancy, achieved international notice.
She holds a research chair at UBC’s Okanagan campus, studying Syilx oral language and literature. Her own published work includes poetry, short stories, novels and children’s books. Armstrong has won numerous prizes for educational work and writing, including the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians. STEPHEN HUME