What is Indigenization

Indigenization at Okanagan College

Hand Drum

Okanagan College Indigenization is about connecting with and learning from Indigenous peoples and their respective knowledge ways. With this understanding, Okanagan College can develop respectful and inclusive knowledge relationships that will inform and converge with the college’s Strategic Plan, as well as create meaningful, inclusive programs and projects which look to the future cooperatively and responsibly.

The Okanagan-Syilx and Secwepemc have taken care of their homelands for thousands of years. Many others who began to arrive 150 years ago or have arrived more recently have come to know this region as home. The urban Aboriginal community includes many Indigenous peoples, locally and from across BC and Canada.

Okanagan-Syilx, Secwepemc, Ktunaxa, First Nations, Métis, Inuit and non-Indigenous Canadians are here to learn together. Using the skills, training and education offered through Okanagan College, we are able to connect to each other and create a culturally and ecologically diverse and sustaining future. That is fundamentally what Okanagan College Indigenization is about.

Justin Peters OC Pow Wow 2015 4

Indigenization at Okanagan College is a transforming shift from past colonizing patterns of homogenization, exclusion and erasure of diverse Indigenous peoples’ knowledges, languages, identities and cultural and educational aspirations. Okanagan College has a strong record in terms of Aboriginal student recruitment, support and completion of programs. Okanagan College Indigenization looks to expand that record and develop meaningful knowledge relationships horizontally across departments, programs and courses, and vertically for projects, programs and courses with specific Indigenous content and outcomes with the Indigenous peoples in whose homelands its campuses are situated. Kelowna, Penticton, Summerland, and Vernon campuses are in Okanagan-Syilx territory. Salmon Arm Campus is in Secwepemc territory, and Revelstoke Campus is located where Okanagan-Syilx, Secwepemc and Ktunaxa homelands converge. Okanagan College Indigenization looks to connect each campus to respective Indigenous peoples’ knowledge, language and active presence. Those relationships will establish a welcoming and inclusive presence for all Indigenous students, for all students, faculty and staff.

Limlemt (Okanagan-Syilx expression of gratitude and respect)