> First Nations language learning drives SFU Kamloops’ success
First Nations language learning drives SFU Kamloops’ success
Contact:
Lorraine Yam, 778.782.5595, yam@sfu.ca
Marianne Ignace, 1.800.399.5565, ignace@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
Lorraine Yam, 778.782.5595, yam@sfu.ca
Marianne Ignace, 1.800.399.5565, ignace@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca
September 18, 2008
Twenty years after its inception as a bare bones university program in a former residential school, Simon Fraser University (SFU) Kamloops is graduating its 386th student at its fall convocation ceremony on Friday, September 26.
The irony of the program’s growth and success, particularly in terms of revitalizing First Nations language learning in a once stifling setting, is not lost on Marianne Ignace. The SFU associate professor of anthropology and First Nations Studies is the academic coordinator at SFU Kamloops and one of its architects.
“We started with 18 students, a few tables and chairs and a blackboard,” remembers Ignace. “With little money and a lot of guts, a group of students and First Nations leaders eagerly and passionately set out to transcend the failure and travesty of past First Nations education at the hands of public institutions. We were answering a community cry for a mini-university serving students outside of the Lower Mainland, yearning for skills in conducting First Nations related research, and credentials such as university certificates, diplomas and degrees.”
This fall’s convocation ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Kamloops Indian Band Sk’elep School of Excellence. Twenty-five degrees and certificates will be awarded to one of SFU Kamloops’ largest groups of graduands to-date. Twelve of the 22 mostly First Nations graduands will receive certificates in First Nations Language Proficiency.
“The largest number of credentials is being granted in language proficiency,” notes Ignace. “This shows that an increasing number of young and not so young aboriginal people are learning and re-learning their languages, and choosing SFU Kamloops as a feasible venue for this. Like a strawberry patch sending out new roots, we are working with rural First Nations communities throughout BC and the Yukon to help them revitalize their first language, a key component of First Nations people’s cultural and spiritual identity.”
(digital photo file available on request)
The irony of the program’s growth and success, particularly in terms of revitalizing First Nations language learning in a once stifling setting, is not lost on Marianne Ignace. The SFU associate professor of anthropology and First Nations Studies is the academic coordinator at SFU Kamloops and one of its architects.
“We started with 18 students, a few tables and chairs and a blackboard,” remembers Ignace. “With little money and a lot of guts, a group of students and First Nations leaders eagerly and passionately set out to transcend the failure and travesty of past First Nations education at the hands of public institutions. We were answering a community cry for a mini-university serving students outside of the Lower Mainland, yearning for skills in conducting First Nations related research, and credentials such as university certificates, diplomas and degrees.”
This fall’s convocation ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Kamloops Indian Band Sk’elep School of Excellence. Twenty-five degrees and certificates will be awarded to one of SFU Kamloops’ largest groups of graduands to-date. Twelve of the 22 mostly First Nations graduands will receive certificates in First Nations Language Proficiency.
“The largest number of credentials is being granted in language proficiency,” notes Ignace. “This shows that an increasing number of young and not so young aboriginal people are learning and re-learning their languages, and choosing SFU Kamloops as a feasible venue for this. Like a strawberry patch sending out new roots, we are working with rural First Nations communities throughout BC and the Yukon to help them revitalize their first language, a key component of First Nations people’s cultural and spiritual identity.”
(digital photo file available on request)
Backgrounder: First Nations Language learning drives SFU Kamloops’ success
Mona Jules (mjules@sfu.ca), a Secwepemc elder and language instructor at SFU Kamloops, is receiving a Bachelor of General Studies and a Certificate for Senior Citizens.
Ron Ignace (rignace@sfu.ca), who is the elected Chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band and former co-chair of SFU’s liaison committee in Kamloops, was formally awarded a doctorate in anthropology at the SFU Burnaby campus this spring and will be part of the SFU Kamloops graduating class. He is the husband of SFU Kamloops associate professor and academic coordinator Marianne Ignace.
Haida master carver Christian White, will be receiving a First Nations Language Proficiency certificate. He has learned Xaad Kil, the Haida language, with the help of courses provided in his home community of Old Massett on Haida Gwaii in the Queen Charlotte Islands, through SFU Kamloops.
Lucille Bell, also from Old Massett, is a prominent community activist who led the Haida effort to repatriate the remains of hundreds of Haida ancestors from museums in Canada and the U.S. She will also receive a First Nations Language Proficiency certificate.
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- The graduation ceremony on Friday, September 26 will be SFU Kamloops’ 16th since the mini-site’s inception in 1988.
- SFU Kamloops offers degrees, certificates and diplomas in First Nations studies, archaeology, anthropology and linguistics/First Nations languages. In recent years, SFU Kamloops has also begun offering programs and credentials in education, such as a Professional Development Program certificate, and a Bachelor of Education.
- Diverse First Nations languages such as Secwepemctsin (Shuswap), Nuxalk, Heiltsuk, Upriver and Downriver Halq’emeylem, Haida, Tsilhqot’in, Dakelh (Carrier), Southern Tutchone, Kaska, Tlingit and Han are taught in First Nations communities through SFU Kamloops.
- SFU Kamloops is located at Chief Louis Centre on the Kamloops Indian Reserve.
- Noteworthy graduands:
Mona Jules (mjules@sfu.ca), a Secwepemc elder and language instructor at SFU Kamloops, is receiving a Bachelor of General Studies and a Certificate for Senior Citizens.
Ron Ignace (rignace@sfu.ca), who is the elected Chief of the Skeetchestn Indian Band and former co-chair of SFU’s liaison committee in Kamloops, was formally awarded a doctorate in anthropology at the SFU Burnaby campus this spring and will be part of the SFU Kamloops graduating class. He is the husband of SFU Kamloops associate professor and academic coordinator Marianne Ignace.
Haida master carver Christian White, will be receiving a First Nations Language Proficiency certificate. He has learned Xaad Kil, the Haida language, with the help of courses provided in his home community of Old Massett on Haida Gwaii in the Queen Charlotte Islands, through SFU Kamloops.
Lucille Bell, also from Old Massett, is a prominent community activist who led the Haida effort to repatriate the remains of hundreds of Haida ancestors from museums in Canada and the U.S. She will also receive a First Nations Language Proficiency certificate.
- The following annual awards will be bestowed on fall graduands: Linguistics Scholarship, Aimee August Scholarship and the Junko Ikebuchi memorial bursary.
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