Vanessa Mitchell
tmilc’aʔ
Project Lead

Vanessa is a syilx (Okanagan) woman, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, and mother of two young adults. She lives in her home community within the syilx Nation. She continues to do the hard work and heart work of anti-Indigenous racism because she knows there are Indigenous peoples not accessing healthcare to the detriment of their health due to experiences of racism and discrimination. Vanessa is pursuing her doctoral degree in Health Sciences at UNBC and was the 2023 recipient of the BC NEIHR Doctoral Scholarship Award. As a lifelong learner and facilitator, she is forever learning different ways to challenge colonial ways and mindsets through stories. Her research strives to elevate generational healing and transformative leadership practices that are centred on Auntie-isms to foster wellness for Indigenous peoples who are leading anti-colonial and anti-racism work within the realm of health.

Christina E. Marchand & Eric Mitchell
npʔpʔaxʷikәn
ELDERS

Life partners, Christina and Eric are syilx from nk’maplqs. In 2020, they each received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from UBC-O for co-founding and delivering cultural safety education in the School of Nursing and extended to the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. In their work they provided safe environments for Indigenous students, staff, and faculty to share their stories and experiences, exposing the truth about the past and ongoing harm of colonialism.

For Chris, as a sixties scoop survivor, focusing on family, reconnecting, and learning more about her relatives across syilx territory has always been near and dear to her heart. Additionally, she has always had a desire to learn the language and was guided to head to Penticton, BC, and both she and her life partner, Eric moved from their home in Vernon, BC to attend the En’owkin Centre. More recently, a language opportunity emerged once more, and Chris jumped at the opportunity to attend the Mentor Apprenticeship Program in her community with her family.

For Eric, an important year for him was 1996 because that was when he heard a Lakota Elder talking about a horse ceremony called the Unity Ride. After much thought, two weeks later he and his life partner, Christina, decided to go on what they have come to refer to as their journey of a lifetime. For the next ten years, they followed that horse ceremony because the spiritual pull was strong enough to return every year. As a residential school survivor who was not raised in ceremony, the spiritual teachings gained on this journey over the land and on horseback were of great importance and held deep meaning to his spiritual growth. As a syilx man in his healing journey, he came to realize both of his grandfathers were not only speakers of their languages, but they knew many from the interior region of BC, and that is when he felt the deep loss of language. From the age of seventeen years of age until today he has become a lifetime student of the language and has had mentors from throughout the Nation who helped him enrich his language learning. Currently, he has been blessed to learn the language with his life partner, daughter, and grandchildren in his home community.

Through his commitment to language, he has had many mentors, including fluent language speakers from the En’owkin Centre and from family, and as an avid researcher, he has accumulated a vast collection of Okanagan language materials, including stories and songs, in both written and audio format. 

Mariel Belanger
c̓ʕ̓n̓ c̓ʕ̓an̓
ARTIST, MENTOR, AND VIDEOGRAPHER

Mariel (Syilx Nation) is a PhD Candidate and 2022-24 CGS SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship, the Teyonkwayenawá:kon – Queens University Graduate Scholarship, MFA SSHRC at UBC-Okanagan, UBC-Okanagan Aboriginal Fellowship, and Indian Brotherhood scholarship recipient who was awarded Outstanding Indigenous Graduate Student at the 2018 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry held at University of Illinois in Champaigne-Urbana. Belanger’s research Digital Embodied Story Practice as Indigenizing Research-Creation Methodology explores digital story-making to subvert coloniality and contributes to the growing body of interdisciplinary artistic scholarship that engages Indigenous community, language, and culture, as a bridge for society telling stories of our time.

Selena Mitchell
q’ymatkʷ
YOUTH

Selena is a young syilx woman from the Okanagan Indian Band. She aspires to continue to learn nsyilxcn and has plans to apply to the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency at UBC-Okanagan. Currently, she is participating in the Mentor Apprenticeship Program with a syilx fluent language speaker in her home community. Her recent focus has been on reconnecting to syilx language, land, family, community, and Nation.

Thunder Mitchell
c’әq’c’q’am
YOUTH

Thunder is syilx and lives in the northern part of the n’kmaplqs boundary. He went to school to be an aviation mechanic and is currently working as an aircraft maintenance engineer mechanic at KF Aerospace in Kelowna. In his spare time, Thunder enjoys video gaming with friends he has come to know from different places around the world and has fun dabbling in voice acting along with making videos and streaming.

Sienna Belanger-Lee
x̌ixutəm, Shongswiigeezus
YOUTH MENTOR

Sienna (she/her) is from the Syilx and Anishinaabe Nations and was raised on reserve at Okanagan Indian Band, located at the head of Lake Okanagan. She is a student obtaining a bachelor's degree in the nsyilxcn/nqilxʷcn language through the Bachelor of Nsyilxcn Language Fluency program at UBC-Okanagan. Sienna currently resides at nsəswl̓aʔxʷ(dry creek) where she facilitates Indigenous planting opportunities as well as her digital arts, language learning, and horse culture.