Arts & Literature

For centuries the Okanagan people have been been actively involved in the arts-with today being no exception. Either as storytellers, dancers, singers or by painting pictographs on rock walls the arts and literature was a form of education, entertainment and livelihood.

The arts wasn't just about the art-it was about the life behind the art. Things weren't created purely from the imagination- they were gifts given to the Okanagan people to survive. Okanagan people painted pictographs following vision quests on rock walls documenting their story, vision and dream. Pictographs that were un translated and up for interpretation by the viewer. It wasn't about who had the biggest pictograph and how many one artist created-it was what the pictograph meant to the individual and its relativity to the nation.

Clothing wasn't about the "look" it was about the weather. Heavier clothes were made for fall and winter months and lighter clothes for spring and summer. Animal furs weren't for show and the "bling" of the past, they were part of who the wearer was and for warmth. It wasn't the "look" or "costumes"of the Okanagan people it was the "life" of the Okanagan people.

Songs and dances weren't about who had the best voice, the biggest drums and best moves, they were about who we are as Okanagan people and what it means to be Okanagan. Okanagan people didn't dance against each other they danced with one another. There wasn't any one way to make an outfit, a drum & stick, a certain movement-it was about expressing what you felt, seen, heard and believed.

Storytellers used gestures, movements, locations, items, songs and facial expressions to tell animated stories for its listener. Creating live theater, comedy acts and dramas from stories that the viewer needed to know and remember. These performances weren't about recognition, fame and material benefits-once again it was about survival. It was the survival of Okanagan history, origins, the how's and whys, the where's and when's, the past, present and futures of the Okanagan peoples, places and things.

Like most cultures, the Okanagan arts isn't about a specific style or certain colors that are distinctly Okanagan (like coastal art is distinctively easily identified as coastal art). Okanagan art was more about the artist then the art. It is still that way today.