Jeannette Armstrong - Armstrong As Educator

Armstrong As Educator

In 1978 Jeannette Armstrong began employment with the Penticton Band in a number of cultural and political capacities while also pursuing her work as a researcher, consultant, and writer at the En’owkin Centre (Lutz 13 and Petrone 140).

The En’owkin Centre, located on the Penticton Indian Reserve and operated exclusively by the six bands of the Okanagan Nation, is managed in conjunction with Okanagan College and the University of Victoria and aims to provide students with a strong cultural and academic foundation for success in further post-secondary studies (En’owkin and Petrone 140). The objectives of the society which governs En’owkin, as Armstrong describes, are “to record and perpetuate and promote ‘Native’ in the cultural sense, in education, and in our lives and our communities” (qtd in Lutz 27).

To support these objectives, the En’owkin Centre created the Okanagan Curriculum Project as a component of its institution (Lutz 27). This project aspires to develop school curriculum that presents Okanagan history in an accurate and dignified way (Lutz 27). Armstrong and her fellow members on the Okanagan Tribal Education Committee believe that Okanagan people must tell their own stories; therefore, the curriculum project created the Learning Institute, which provides adult Native people with skills in research and writing so that First Nations individuals can develop quality, correct, and appropriate information for the project (Lutz 28).

Theytus Books Ltd., the first publishing house in Canada owned and operated by First Nations people, was established in 1980 as part of the curriculum project and continues to run as a division of the En’owkin Centre (Lutz 28 and Theytus). The En’owkin Centre’s programs help to provide Theytus with proficient employees who work collectively in efforts to produce and promote appropriate reading material and information created by Native authors, illustrators, and artists (Lutz 28 and Theytus).

Armstrong was appointed as the Executive Director of the En’owkin Centre in 1986 and she carries on in this role to present day.

In 1989 Armstrong helped to establish the En’owkin School of International Writing and became its director as well as an instructor (Petrone 140). The En’owkin School of International Writing is the first credit-giving creative writing school in Canada operated entirely by and for Aboriginal people (Petrone 140 and Voices).