There are 34 unique Indigenous languages currently in use in British Columbia. Each of them is critically endangered. The disappearance of any single one represents not just the loss of the language itself but also the loss of a living expression of intellect, a specific cultural understanding and an important link to the past. Dr. Jeannette Armstrong is partnering with scholars, Indigenous educators and community members to help ensure these languages survive.
Graduates from the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency and Bachelor of NłeɁkepmx Language Fluency programs, as part of the Interior Salishan Studies Centre helped established by Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, benefit from the centre’s multifaceted work in teaching and research, including new infrastructure and tools across partner sites to enable the collection, sharing and archiving of language and culture.
The majority of Indigenous languages used in BC are facing the impending loss of the last living generation of first-language speakers within the next decade. As such, there is an urgent need to protect and promote these languages in order to carry that knowledge forward and preserve their cultural history before it is lost for good.
In 2024, Dr. Armstrong, Professor in UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Science, helped establish the Interior Salishan Studies Centre (ISSC). Located on UBCO’s campus, the centre focuses on teaching and research by supporting the university’s Interior Salish Language fluency programs, pursuing the development of Salishan-specific Indigenous knowledge and conducting Salishan-led research. It is based on a number of partnerships between UBCO, Indigenous communities and Interior Salish institutions that go back more than 20 years.
The ISSC is an important step in the collective effort to support the language and cultural revitalization in the Interior Salishan region. However, language learning opportunities are best placed within communities themselves, and while the centre exists at UBCO, its vision has always been place-based, with additional nodes envisioned throughout the four Interior Salishan language speaking Nations of the syilx, NłeɁkepmx, St’át’imc and Secwépemc.
Now, using funding from CFI’s Innovation Fund, those nodes will soon become a reality.
With nearly $1.5 million in awarded funding, infrastructure at each of the centre’s partner sites—the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, the En’owkin Centre, the Lillooet Tribal Council/St’át’imc Education Institute and the Chief Atahm School—will be built to enable the collection, sharing and archiving of language and culture. The new spaces will support everything from language recording, documentation and digitization within soundproof spaces to video conferencing, archiving and reproducing digital resources in specialized, portable, A/V facilities. It’s regional work with much larger applications, says Dr. Armstrong.
“Beyond the outcomes of the Salishan-specific research of this project will be new, emerging and best practices in institutional efforts to Indigenize and contribute to reconciliation,” she says. “In this way, the regional nature of the project takes on national and international significance.”
With a narrowing window of time to act, this unique university-community partnership built on years of collaboration with Indigenous leaders, educators and communities is better equipped than ever to protect and preserve the languages that have shaped the lands for ages.