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Alexis, Sarah

University of British Columbia

This thesis examines the story threads of syilx people and concepts regarding responsibility and enacting accountability to the ecosystems in the Okanagan Valley. The research looked at gaps in contemporary understanding of ecological accountability as informed by the nsyilxcn language. The thesis argues that understanding the conceptual ideas of the syilx regarding the larger ecosystem serves to establish stronger individual, familial, community, and national ties to environmental accountability and does this through syilx oral narratives that serve as a framework of looking outwards at the world. The methodological approach for this thesis includes a search and analysis through syilx-specific literature and autoethnographic sources and stories to help situate and address this research. The thesis queries asked: how do I as a syilx scholar approach Indigenous research through a syilxcentric analysis?; how did my experiences of being a sqilxʷ person inform coming into a view of sqəlxʷcawt?; how does nsyilxcn as a language in its authentic form underpin sqəlxʷcawt, (ways of being), to ensure the transfer between bodies of generational knowledge and inform our contemporary syilx responsibilities?; and how do syilx ancestral oraliture, captikʷɬ and smaʔmayʔ, inform syilx social values and understandings of responsibility, including water? The findings for this thesis is that contemporary syilx sqəlxʷcawt is informed directly from the intricate and lived understanding of the physical, metaphysical, visual, and spiritual connections of nsyilxcn.

Text

2024-12-24

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89991

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCO

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