Alternative material to review for those unable to attend the field trip.

Videos

Who are the Sy'ilx? Module 3 Traditional Part 1 of 2 https://youtu.be/bIhrlYp4tVQ

Who are the Sy'ilx? Module 3 Present Day Part 2 of 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F2jbi73NRs

Jeannette Armstrong,
- Okanagan Knowledge Keeper https://youtu.be/YnHynPM7c9c
- TEDxOkanaganCollege - Indigenization https://youtu.be/jLOfXsFlb18
- Human Relationship as Land Ethic https://youtu.be/qwNoX3MNisE
- Indigenous Economics https://youtu.be/Ib9BVGDW6sw
For The People; Stories of Resilience https://youtu.be/dVGfTn-IjOk

Additional material

Okanagan Nation Territory Map: https://www.syilx.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ON_Territory.pdf

ONA: https://www.syilx.org/about-us/
Letter to Sir Wilfred Laurier from the Chiefs of the Shuswap, Okanagan and Couteau Tribes of British Columbia. Presented at Kamloops^ B.C. August 25,1910 https://iitio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/1910-Letter-to-PM-from-Secwepemec.pdf

Reflections

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Reflections inspired by the selection of Syilx material

Kevin Auster

The videos on Indigenous knowledge and culture provide a powerful insight into the resilience and perseverance of Indigenous communities in the face of adversity. These communities have faced numerous obstacles over the years, including the impact of colonization, loss of land and culture, and the imposition of Western values on their way of life. Despite these challenges, Indigenous communities have managed to maintain their cultural identity and knowledge, often through the transmission of oral traditions from one generation to the next.

Reflecting on these videos, one of the key takeaways is the importance of preserving Indigenous oral traditions and integrating traditional ecological knowledge into modern solutions for managing the environment. Indigenous communities have a unique understanding of the ecosystems in which they live and have developed sustainable practices that have enabled them to coexist with the natural world for thousands of years. This knowledge can be invaluable in today's world, where the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent. Another important aspect highlighted in these videos is the bond between Indigenous communities and the land they inhabit. The land is not merely a resource to be exploited but a vital part of their cultural identity and spirituality. Colonization and modern development practices have disrupted this connection between people and the land. By incorporating Indigenous knowledge and practices into urban planning, we can promote a more holistic approach that respects the environment and its inhabitants. The legacy of residential schools and forced assimilation policies has profoundly affected Indigenous peoples' mental, physical, and emotional health. By recognizing and addressing the intergenerational trauma caused by these policies, we can begin to promote healing and reconciliation. Moreover, the videos also touch on the impact of colonization on the well-being of Indigenous communities. In conclusion, these videos provide valuable insights into the importance of Indigenous knowledge and culture, the need to preserve oral traditions, the interconnectedness of well-being, and the impact of colonization. As a planner, incorporating Indigenous knowledge and practices from these films into redevelopment plans, such as the plans we are creating for Bradt's Creek, can help promote environmental sustainability, social justice, and a more holistic approach to urban planning.

Em Isaak

I was unable to go on the museum tour and so I greatly appreciate having those alternative resources. I feel though that this should be the first sort of guest speaker experience for this class. I do not think we can start this project without being situated on this land. I learnt a lot from the videos about Syilx culture and I actually had the opportunity to go to a guest lecture where the lecturer was Coralee Miller and so I feel thankful to have had that experience as it has given me more insight.

I have been thinking a lot about what the word sustainability means and I feel like it is so swept up in a Eurocentric, colonized context, that it has lost its meaning. Indigenous communities have been practicing sustainability for hundreds of thousands of years but have continuously be oppressed through colonial violence and neoliberalism. So, now I am wondering how we start to be decolonial with our thought process in this project. Even though I learnt a lot from watching the alternative resources, I feel like I have more questions than answers about how this can relate to our class project. I think the reason there are more questions is because how do you acknowledge the land and the history in this context in a meaningful and engaging way. Truth and reconciliation is a long process that takes a lot of time forging meaningful relationships but that is very difficult to the time constraints of the semester. So, to conclude, how do we go forward?

Hoda Pourpirali

Firstly, I want to thank you for gathering these wonderful informative videos. When I moved to Canada 6 months ago, I was not familiar with indigenous peoples at all. But now, thanks to the University, I can even recognize their specific music and signs. As an urban and regional planner who must consider all of the peoples and nations in the process of planning, I have to immerse myself in getting knowledge and information about different nations, especially indigenous peoples, and these videos were super helpful in this term.

Reflecting on these videos, one of the most significant values for indigenous people, is resilience and perseverance in their communities and I got familiar with some organizations like Coville confederated tribes in the US in this term. They try to bind and unify and preserving health and well-being is one of the things that they try to encompass their efforts.

They don’t refuse or reject technology or ideas from different cultures, and modern living, but, they believe that they must not forget who they are and continuously repair and renew all the webs of relations and build new ones that tie them together.

The healthiness was affected by the years of colonization, but now, they are revitalizing their communities and uplift them.

The way they try to teach their kids to how to fish, hunt, make baskets, and … is really engaging. The children in school learn how to prepare and harvest their food naturally and by this way, they try to preserve their cultures and traditions. It reminded me of the session in that we talk about the social aspects of sustainability. It was a great sample of what I heard in class.

A part of a video was about the impacts of alterations to our landscape on the extinction of Salmon. It reminded me of the session that we had about it at our class. Like Okanagan salmon, the Okanagan language and subsequently, Okanagan worldview knowledge, culture, and people are critically endangered and facing extinction.

Another video about knowledge keepers was very interesting to me because it reminded me of those who have this responsibility in my country. They try to keep the culture and customs of their local people alive by showing them to the whole country and beyond. These people are very admirable. I believe her grandmother played a specific role in this responsibility (because she didn’t allow their family speech English t home, and it forced them to learn Okanagan as their original language).

In conclusion, they were super informative and interesting videos that encouraged me to search and watch other related videos to improve my knowledge in the terms of indigenous people and their culture and the way they try to preserve it.

Anjali Desai

I thank the professors for providing alternative material to refer to in my inability to attend the museum trip. I was rather surprised to hear of the colonial history of Canada when I first arrived in Kelowna last year due to the lack of dialogue on the topic at a global scale. Much like India, they indigenous communities have faced extreme violence under the rule of the same Crown.

The 200 year colonial past of India resulted in the massive drain of resources, widespread poverty, loss of indigenous knowledge, skills, arts and crafts and the appropriation of the knowledge by the British crown.

The resources also reminded me of the book Pollution is Colonialism by Max Librion which talks of how plastics and wide spread industrialization are the new manifestations of Colonialism. Sustainability” is a word that is commonly used in various contexts in the current times. Looking at this universal goal at hand through a rather ignored lens, it is important to understand the colonial structures and systems we may tend to inadvertently support even in our well-intended endeavors of building a sustainable society. As opposed to the simplistic view of colonialism we ordinarily possess which is restricted to wealth, the intention is to bring out the intricacies and the far reaching impacts it has on the environment. As we focus our attention on anti-colonial practices, it is important to recognise that a lot of the current societal structures and relations are colonial and we have to maneuver within them: there is no blank slate to start from. The concept of “care” is also rather paradoxical as care is not inherently good as it is an uneven relation. It is important to take care that our efforts to decolonise do not repeat the colonialist structures where the indigenous are being studied or told and are virtually deprived of any say over their lands and problems. To deconstruct, it is important to look at it as an institutional framework and undo the mechanisms which oppress and subjugate.