Milestone for Syilx

Photo: Contributed

Learners at the Syilx Language House will celebrate a milestone later this month.

It's a historic year for Syilx Language House in keeping the Okanagan native tongue alive.

Learners are in the final year of a four-year program and are speaking at a conversationally fluent, mid-intermediate level in their ancestral language.

Fewer than 50 people still speak the Syilx language, but the Learning House is working to change that by teaching the next generation a language that was all but wiped out.

At one time, the language was spoken by First Peoples throughout the Valley.

“Their hard work is showing results,” said Michele Johnson with the Language House. “Only three Indigenous languages in Canada are delivering 1,000-plus hours and creating speaking fluency – ourselves, the Mohawk and the Squamish. Students can tell full stories and converse, thanks to the help of our elders and the four-year curriculum built by the Salish School of Spokane.”

The hard work of the students will be recognized at a special event Jan. 24 in the Westbank First Nation gym at Sensisyusten House of Learning.

The event will feature songs, storytelling and other activities.

The next four-year course will start in September.