Acknowledgements

Situating myself as a visitor on the Unceded Territory of the Syilx Okanagan Peoples, I acknowledge that I am an uninvited guest who benefits from living, working, teaching, and studying on this land. I am committed to furthering the process of Truth and Reconciliation by learning and creating awareness for my students and colleagues about the land we live on. Though my intentions are to continue to learn about the land I am on and share this knowledge with consent, I recognize that I am no expert in this field and my research is a work in progress. Further, I understand that knowledge is power and as such, my intentions are not to benefit myself or misrepresent any of the Syilx Okanagan knowledge shared within this resource.

I recognize that there are many ways of knowing and understanding the world around us including Indigenous ways of knowing and perspectives. My goal is to increase awareness of the ways in which Eurocentric education has excluded and marginalized Indigenous Peoples for centuries and create awareness about the land we live on, as well as increase knowledge of how Indigenous knowledge and perspectives can be integrated into the classroom.

I acknowledge that this statement alone does not make me an expert source of information. As such, it is my intention to work collaboratively with Syilx Okanagan scholars and educators in order to further my understanding of their land, culture and history and pass this along to my students. Though I am committed to creating awareness about the Unceded Territory of Syilx Okanagan Peoples, there is much more work that needs to be done by myself, as well as other scholars and educators working on this land.