Snk’lip

Working together in relation, we may choose a path to healing that is necessary to embrace the Calls to Action of the TRC in the name of reconciling Canada’s relational past and set the conditions for transformation which holds potential to benefit future generations. Snk’lip, with mindpower and imagination, and with a capacity to be both trickster-like and transformative can give us the inspiration and the power we need to undertake an unlearning, decolonizing journey.

The first version of this webpage was created for educators to learn and unlearn about the impact of Residential Schools on syilx Territory—in a local context. The intention was to offer resources to educators creating learning conditions for their own students to visit Carey Newman’s Witness Blanket installation at the Kelowna Art Gallery in 2022. This current iteration of the webpage continues to be for educators, and additionally community members. Creators of the page recommend that to access resources for your students, please visit your local school district space (s) for material that has been vetted for the delicate nature of this learning. The Central Okanagan School District has developed a website dedicated to Indigenizing Curriculum.

The videos you see below both originate in the syilx Nation.

Dr. Cohen’s retelling of Coyote and Eagle 

Recorded in late 2021 with Dr. Bill Cohen of the syilx Nation, this video provides context to 1. the era we live in, 2. the history that preceded the colonial Canada (and in this case the Okanagan) as we know it, 3. a story, captikwt, of the syilx (Okanagan) that is central to this webpage and to the transformative possibilities found here, 4. the idea of co-learning and transforming monsters as seen through the lens of Snk’lip’s powers.

What is a Monster Toolkit ?

Metaphorically speaking, an individual or a collective of people may build a monster toolkit that contains the knowledge, thinking, understandings, and practices of everyday life that give people the wisdom to recognize when things have fallen apart, then to gather the bits and “step over them four times”, “breathe life back into the pieces”, and come back transformed, making their new understanding part of their daily rituals for better living for all. It makes the world a safe place for the peoples-to-be.

Trigger Warning. This video covers a very difficult topic and viewers should understand it could trigger a trauma response. We share this as learning for adults. Any use in public schools must be undertaken with extreme care and collective decision-making.

“Monster” – The Kamloops Residential School Experience written and performed by Dennis Saddleman and is vital to an unlearning, decolonizing journey.

Dennis Saddleman from the area known as the Nicola Valley, is a respected and widely-known poet who is a Residential School Survivor who spent 11 years in a residential school. In his late twenties, Saddleman embarked on a healing journey with the support of other survivors. He returned to education, and eventually took writing classes at Penticton’s En’owkin Centre, an Indigenous cultural and creative arts organization. The power of Dennis Saddleman’s spoken word is transformative. His resiliency speaks for itself.

Additional Resources

To deepen understanding about the local (syilx) Indian Residential School experience, the following resources will support unlearning:

• About Indian Residential Schools through a local lens: https://syilx.org/wellness/indian-residential-school/about-indian-residential-schools/
• From Take the Indian Out of the Child, Okanagan Nation Alliance: https://syilx.org/wellness/indian-residential-school/take-the-indian-out-of-the-child-book/

captikwt

• Oral stories with Sncewips museum’s Coralee Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgMvla4eO4k&list=PLOvrqdcpc-kkHYtKwe2yVR2PEKYTk3Mt0
• Coyote frees the salmon . . . and finds love? with Sncewips Museum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA6ck0u3P48&list=PLU9ZypuC5tGbey4dSMCK8DhYFuLXWgOZS

UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People)

BC Legislature passed UNDRIP into law in November of 2019.

The United Nations passed UNDRIP in September of 2007. It includes 46 articles covering all facets of human rights of Indigenous peoples.

The Truth & Reconciliation Report (2015) Calls to Action

“The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada was a commission like no other in Canada. Constituted and created by the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which settled the class actions, the Commission spent six years travelling to all parts of Canada to hear from the Aboriginal people who had been taken from their families as children, forcibly if necessary, and placed for much of their childhoods in residential schools.” 2015: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, preface)