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Derrickson, Aaron

University of British Columbia

This thesis seeks to understand Syilx leadership through traditional stories (captikʷɬ) and Nsyilxcn. Syilx concepts of leadership are explored through four captikʷɬ: How Coyote Got His Name and Powers; Coyote, Horse, and Dog; Coyote, Porcupine, and the Flies; and The Four Food Chiefs. I discuss power, story, and Syilx leadership and the intersections therein through an analysis of these captikʷɬ in conjunction with the wider academic literature on leadership. The first three captikʷɬ are mechanisms for changing anti-social behaviors, while The Four Food Chiefs activates pro-social behaviors. The methodology research paradigm is what I call Enowkinwixʷ Research Paradigm (ERP). The ERP follows Enowkinwixʷ theory and methodology that are inherently Syilx. I juxtapose these tools with other existing scholarly approaches as a means of demonstrating the contemporary utility of an Indigenous Syilx paradigm for leadership. Leadership in this research comes from a Syilx perspective and is defined through two distinct aspects. Firstly, through the captikʷɬ - leadership is care for land, the people, and all living things. Secondly, through the Nsyilxcn language- the word for leader, yilmixʷm, defines an imperative for the leader as someone who continuously brings together the various strands of community. Traditional Syilx leadership, as learners of captikʷɬ, were empathetic in that the captikʷɬ established the means for that empathy. Empathy, or the ability to read into how our actions affect the emotional state of others, was mobilized in Syilx leadership through Enowkinwixʷ, a complex concept that originates in the The Four Food Chiefs. Findings in the literature, show that power is a resource present in human interactions, and is especially relevant to leadership. In the Syilx worldview, power is shared within various leadership functions (i.e. The Four Food Chiefs), and is represented in community. The foreign introduction of power presented a colonial interruption that forced a transformation of Syilx leadership into structures that were foreign to Syilx thought. Using The Four Food Chiefs as a base point, I show the power-sharing methods inherent to Enowkinwixʷ. The re-institutionalization of these practices in contemporary leadership literately provides the basis for continuously being Syilx.

Text

2024-08-08

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88907

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/