Ten years of learning in portables is nearly behind its students and instructors.
The Okanagan Indian Band is set to open its beautiful nkmapls i蕯 snm 虛 虛 am 虛 aya蕯tn i蕯 kl sqilx史t蓹t 虛 new cultural immersion school, which is nearing completion at the Komasket Park location off Westside Road.
The grand opening is on Tuesday, Aug. 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at 11555 Westside Rd.
The new school will replace the aging and outgrown Cultural Immersion School building. The new school鈥檚 seven classrooms, gymnasium, library, kitchen, language, culture and administration areas will support the Okanagan Indian Band in expanding a culturally appropriate learning environment for the community鈥檚 kindergarten (age four) to Grade 7 students.
"We are so excited for our new learning space," wrote vice-principal Tanya Saddleman-Joe, and director of language, education and culture, Danielle Saddleman, in the August edition of the OKIB newsletter.
"We have seen a steady increase in enrolment over the last few school years, the building will have classrooms from kindergarten to Grade 7 and a space for preschool when we are ready to receive them.
"The students and staff are excited to finally have a gym, a library, a drumming room, a proper kitchen, and outdoor learning areas. But what matters most is not the list of features. What matters is that this school was built to support the way we teach, the way we learn, and the way we live as sqilx史 people."
What the band has created is a lasting space that reflects and upholds sqilx史 people.
The school name means 鈥渢he place where our children learn our Indian ways,鈥� and stands as a living expression of sqilx史 values.
"It is a place where the sqilx史 world view is centred, and where our children can practice their language and culture every day," said the women. "A place where they can walk in and know, with certainty, that their voices, their stories, their language, and our ways of being not only belong, but are honoured and held at the heart of everything we do."
The new school didn鈥檛 just appear 鈥� it came from the community. It grew from the voices of elders who said, 鈥渒eep the language first;鈥� from families who called for something more; and from students who deserve the best. It came from educators and staff who went beyond their roles to carry this work forward. This school came from the sqilx史.
"This is a place for stories, language and land-based learning," said Saddleman, and Saddleman-Joe. "A place where our kids can grow up knowing who they are 鈥� and see that reflected around them every day.
Current OKIB Chief Dan Wilson 鈥� whose grandchildren will attend the new facility 鈥� remembers when he was Chief back in 2001, as well as chair of the Okanagan National Alliance, and was summoned to Penticton for a meeting with Elder Louise Gabriel. She had been having visions that were turning into nightmares.
What Gabriel was seeing was the extinction of her people and its culture.
The alliance, she said, had to rebuild cottonwood canoes and make a trip from the northern part of Okanagan Lake to its southern terminus, flowing into the Columbia.
With seven canoes built 鈥� six by the OKIB and one by the Lower Similkameen Band in Cawston 鈥� the trip was made with Wilson aboard one of the traditionally made canoes.
Right after that trip, he said, young women in 2002 began teaching kids the nsyilxc蓹n language throughout the sqilx史 territory.
"Women were running daycares out of their basements, and elders were brought in to teach the language, that's how it all started," said Wilson.
"Every band in the Okanagan Nation Alliance has its own immersion school and its own language programs. Our language is being taught at UBCO (UBC Okanagan) as part of its linguistics program."
A groundbreaking ceremony to launch the construction of the new Okanagan Indian Band Cultural Immersion Elementary School was held Feb. 22, 2024.
The Government of Canada has committed $19.3 million to this important school project. The Okanagan Indian Band will contribute $2.85 million.
