Cice Magazine, No. 8

I am From... Operation Save: A Volunteer\u27s Reflection Big Girls Climb Too: Dismantling Exclusionary Outdoor Culture The Forgotten: Low-Income and Indebted at Puget Soundhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/cicemagazine/1007/thumbnail.jp

Okanagan water systems : an historical retrospect of control, domination and change

In this study, I examine the history of colonial control, domination, and change that began in the Interior Plateau region of British Columbia in 1811 when interaction between the Syilx (Okanagan) and European explorers first occurred. I focus on water use practices in particular, employing an indigenous Syilx approach (En’owkinwixw) in order to display the negative impacts of colonial policies on the Syilx and their environment. The En’owkinwixw methodology, which calls for the incorporation of multiple perspectives, is thousands of years old, but has been modified here from its original consensus-based decision-making process. The manner in which the U.S. government developed resource and water management policies in America’s arid Far West directly influenced the models that were later adopted by British Columbia and Canada. U.S. Supreme Court decisions along with a number of international treaties and trade agreements between the United States and Canada have also compromised the ability of the Syilx to maintain a sustainable and harmonious relationship with their environment. Depression era policies in the United States led to the implementation of large-scale projects such as the damming of the Columbia River that had further negative consequences on the environment of the Interior Plateau. The Columbia River had been the destination for the world’s most prolific salmon migrations but their numbers dropped abruptly after the dams were built. In 1954, on the British Columbia side of the border, a flood-control project was completed that channelized a section of the Okanagan River that meandered between Okanagan and Skaha Lakes. Oral testimonials from Penticton elders are presented to demonstrate the severity of biological loss and give eyewitness accounts of the negative social, economic, cultural and political impacts caused by this radical alteration to the river. Evidence from four traditional knowledge keepers who continue to live near the confluence of Shingle and Shatford Creeks on the Penticton Reserve, indicates that water loss and ecological degradation in this area were caused by upstream water users outside of reserve boundaries. The study concludes with a proposal for the development of a collaborative and restorative ecological model based on application of the En’owkinwixw epistemology.Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)Graduat

Oral narratives, customary laws and indigenous water rights in Canada

Prior to the European discovery and colonization of North America the Indigenous peoples managed their natural environment through a management regime that was guided by traditional governance systems that were based within the oral tradition. Since the assertion of European authority the water rights of indigenous peoples were subsequently diminished and infringed upon by colonial policies that derived from the doctrine of discovery. In the contemporary era the Supreme Court of Canada has determined that the priority water rights of Canada's aboriginal peoples must be proven under the premise of European concepts of land ownership and entitlement. It is my intent to use the oral narratives of the Syilx (Okanagan) to provide evidence of the ancient customary laws and practices that guided the management practices over this natural resource. To substantiate the existence of the customary laws of indigenous peoples I use primary research gathered from Syilx (Okanagan) and Secwepemc (Shuswap) informants. Previously published and unpublished oral narratives that were recorded and transcribed during the twenty-first century will also be used in this inquiry. Prior to the arrival of Europeans a phenomenon of globalization greatly influenced the development of colonial policies and laws that in turn impacted modern day Supreme Court decisions in both the United States and Canada. An analysis of the manner in which the Supreme Court decisions infringed upon the human and aboriginal right to water will be used to determine both the weaknesses and strengths of the priority rights of water that have been held in perpetuity by aboriginal peoples within Indigenous North America.Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)Graduat

Okanagan Waterways Past, Present and Future: Approaching Sustainability through Immersive Museum Exhibition

This paper presents Waterways Past, Present and Future, a research project and exhibition in Okanagan Syilx territory, aimed at increasing awareness of the relationship between people and water towards catalyzing sustainable water practices. The exhibition’s multi-channel audio-visual media was designed to immerse, provoke, destabilize, transform and move visitors to take responsibility for water. Drawing on many ways of knowing and doing in the creative process, the exhibition opens different entry points to the research, thus encouraging an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural audience to engage with it. Waterways’ contribution to sustainability discourse lies in its empowerment of collaborative inquiry as a way of knowing, understanding and representing our world. The epistemological dimensions of the exhibit present multiplicities embedded in the social life of water, inviting dialogues, shaping cultural narratives and developing new forms of creativity. Through the sensual process of immersion and activation of lateral thinking, the exhibition facilitates connections across cultures, connections that act as agents for social transformation. Waterways’ experiential journey transcends our personal and dominant socio-cultural patterns, reaching beyond normative structures to new creative realms shared ethical space.Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)ReviewedFacult