For Jeannette Armstrong, the cultural struggles for First Nations people is far from over.
She made the comments during her keynote address on the first day of the Okanagan Band School Conference at Outma Sqilx’w Cultural School on the Penticton Indian Reserve.
“This work is always for tomorrow, it’s never going to get resolved it’s never going to be perfect, we’re always going to be fighting an uphill battle to find tools, to find programs, to find new ways,” she told a crowd of several hundred Thursday. “We’re against the rising tide of change all the time. We have got to work and we’ve got to understand that and we have to respond to that.
“We always have to understand that there’s never going to be enough money, there’s never going to be enough people ,never going to be enough time.”
The two-day conference, Language is Our Breath, includes a number of workshops and presentations for Okanagan bands throughout the valley and Washington State with the focus on First Nations studies.
Armstrong is director of the En’owkin Centre, she has won numerous awards for her work, has a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Victoria and an honorary doctorate of letters from St. Thomas University.
She is an author, artist, educator and activist and is well-known for her cultural commitment to the First Nations people.
“Our language was devil worshiping, this is what our elders had to contend with, that’s what our elders had to stand up against,” she said. “It was a real struggle for a lot of them and today we’re faced with many of the same things the same prejudices and the challenges of drugs, the challenges of alcohol.
“There’s only one way of truth and so when you think about that you look at some of the means of stopping us and blocking us there’s still a lot of things we have to clean up with little brother for their understanding to happen and we’re doing that with these types of gatherings and conferences.”
She pointed out knowledge can be imparted in any language.
“French has a higher priority, English has a higher priority in the budgeting process,” said Armstrong. “We have to push for our languages to be official languages. Our leaders have to push for that, to fight for that or that reconciliation will never happen.”
During her talk she acknowledged the many people who have fought to keep their speech alive through the years and who are continuing to do so for future generations.
Gus Timoyakin of Vernon, who is Armstrong’s nephew agreed with the need to preserve the language.
“The importance here is to collaborate other teachers and peers about the value of knowledge to help one another,” said Timoyakin, who also teaches aboriginal language. “It’s the voice of literature it’s the voice of prayers voice of guidance and it’s the custom to continue to do what we have been doing.
“The importance is for the children, the grandchildren.”
Several programs are either planned or already underway to promote First Nations language on the reserve.
Outma School is planning to implement an immersion-style class for the younger children, hopefully by next year.
Already in operation is the Syilx Language House where 15 adults recently completed 200 hours of Nsyilxcn instruction through the completion the second curriculum textbook.