Honouring Ancestor Voices

Authors: Sharon E. Syrette & Siyamtelot Shirley Leon Jan 2021

When your culture and language are disappearing, and fluent speakers are passing on, what can you do?

Sto:lo Elders Qw’et’osiya Nancy Joe Phillips, Siyamiya Amelia Douglas, and Xwiy’alemot Matilda Jackson Guitierrez stepped up, despite their personal negative experiences during their own early education at residential schools.

Courage to Speak shares the experience of these three women and a handful of their Elder peers in the mid-1970’s. The purpose of their weekly meetings was to develop a written form of their Halq’emeylem language that could easily be learned. Working with linguist Brent Galloway, the Coqualeetza Elders adopted, illustrated and modified, an alphabet, and created a dictionary of over 1,000 words and curriculum for active learning.

Their early curriculum work presented experiential teaching methods, and resulted in publication of seven teaching stories based on traditional experiences and knowledge.

Throughout their ‘apprenticeship in linguistics”, they maintained their dignity, corrected one another, and laughed together. Their efforts captured the history of change from an oral language to written Halq’emeylem and influenced teachers, educators, and leaders in Sto:lo communities in the upper Fraser River area.