An Okanagan First Nations school has signed an agreement with Okanagan College to open educational pathways and help remove economic barriers for aboriginals.
The formal agreement was signed this week at the En’owkin Centre on the Penticton Indian Reserve. It’s an indigenous learning centre where locals can learn their language and history.
Courses at the En’owkin Centre will offer students credits toward a diploma from Okanagan College and also become open to non-aboriginal students.
There are more than one thousand aboriginal students at Okanagan College, a population that increases every year.
“We think the En’owkin Centre is doing a fantastic job in terms of providing education, cultural development and all those sort of things for the Okanagan Nation,” says Jim Hamilton, Okanagan College president. “It’s regarded as being an institution of great merit through out the province and internationally.”
“We want them to walk in there equipped with knowledge about who they are as Okanagan people and to understand very clearly that their identity on this territory is valuable and that they have something to be proud of,” says Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, executive director of the En’owkin Centre. “They can use it as well to insert into their higher learning studies and so we prepare them for that.
“We’re very excited about this signing today. It’s a milestone,” she says.
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