NVIT partners in new Indigenous language fluency degree
MERRITT, B.C. — For the first time, students will be able to receive a new bachelor’s degree of Nsyilxcn language fluency offered by UBC Okanagan (UBCO), in partnership with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology (NVIT) and the En’owkin Centre in Penticton.
This will be the first bachelor’s degree of its kind in British Columbia. It will boost the number of fluent Nsyilxcn speakers at a time when Indigenous languages in B.C. are critically endangered.
Nsyilxcn is an endangered language spoken throughout the land of the Syilx Okanagan Nation, which includes the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, Okanagan Indian Band, Osoyoos Indian Band, Penticton Indian Band, Upper Nicola Band, Upper Similkameen Indian Band and Westbank First Nation.
In a unique partnership, UBCO, NVIT, and the En’owkin Centre have come together to offer the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency (BNLF) program. This is the first degree under a newly designed provincial framework for Indigenous language learning initiated by the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC) and Indigenous Adult and Higher Learning Association (IAHLA). The framework was developed from a discussion paper prepared for FNESC and IAHLA by Jeannette Armstrong, a knowledge keeper of the Syilx Okanagan Nation and associate professor of Indigenous studies at UBCO.