Understanding the Syilx Culture

What is CULTURE?

According to one definition culture is defined as a set of rules or standards, shared by members of a society, which when acted upon by the members produce behavior that falls within a range the members consider proper and acceptable. According to the Syilx people every aspect of our culture is based on our belief in the laws of respect. Everything we have, everything we do and everything we are is defined by respect.

Ceremonies we have and perform is the way our people show the amount of appreciation and respect we have with honor and by giving thanks. Songs we sing and dance to is the way we honor and respect our interpretations of what we are singing about. Everything we do from the ceremonies to hunting is about respect, everything we have from our language to our clothes is about respect and everything we are from being a baby to the high chief is all about respect. To Syilx people culture is belief in respect and respect in belief.

TRADITIONAL BELIEFS

Recognition prayers (giving thanks)
The prayers and observances of the Syilx were given to the people as a set of laws from the Creator. Through special gifts inherent with all of creation and a thorough understanding or teaching of those gifts, we are all able to carry out a set of duties and responsibilities-including prayer- for all of creation. From the smallest animal, plant, and rock, to the vast earth and beyond-everything has a gift, a reason or a purpose. We as the Syilx people are a part of those gifts and responsible for sharing these stories, songs and prayers so everything is and continues to be respected.

Prayers and feasts are offered before and after we gathered all of our traditional foods, be it gathering roots and berries, hunting or fishing and after the seasonal harvest. In most cases, it is an offering to acknowledge, respect and honor the living spirits of what we are gathering for our families, to which the people are connected with. This gesture gives reassurances that all these “foods� will return the following year so we may continue to provide them for our nourishment and survival.

Syilx people have annual celebrations and feasts after the harvests, gathering and hunting seasons are finished. We do this to give thanks for all that we have and are about to receive. Berry pickers, root pickers and hunters give some of what they have gathered in prayer as thanks and for the ability to gather the upcoming year. Hunters, fishers, berry pickers and root diggers will also provide the families who are unable to gather with some of what they have gathered. They do this as a form of respect to the families and out of responsibility for being able to gather and provide these traditional foods.

Syilx Cycles and Connectedness

In our Syilx way of life there is a beginning and an ending to all natural living things. Observances are viewed in a similar way, mostly in terms of everything beginning or belonging to a life cycle. Cycles such as: the four seasons, the cycle of the moon (solstices) and the stages of the human life are a few samples.

Okanagan people are very connected to their land and all of its natural inhabitants. To us, all living things are of equal importance to each other for survival. An example, in our Syilx calendar we have thirteen seasonal indicators of what happens in each period of time. Without being specific to details, when the sunflowers seed it tells us that its a time to start doing certain things and that its almost time to do something else! Certain insects will only be found in certain areas at certain times of the year and this also tells us something. These are what we call seasonal indicators.

Also, in the Syilx life, our life is a cycle. We are created from the Earth as a gift to our parents, and we go through various learning and living cycles- children, youth/ teens, young adults, adults, elders and then we go back to the Earth.

Therefore, we are connected to the Earth and all of its natural living forces including the land, fire, water and wind and cannot survive without any of these. We are connected to all of the Animals, including the four legged, two legged, winged beings, water beings, insects, organisms and everything between and cannot survive without these either. We are connected to and depend on the plants and roots, and everything which grows on and in the Earth for our survival. And everything is connected with each other for our survival. Plants need the earth and water of the earth to grow, the people and animals rely on the plants and roots for foods and medicines, when animals and syilx people pass on, we become part of the earth. Everything is connected, everything is has a purpose and a reason for being, therefore everything must be and is treated with respect.

Ceremony
The way in which the Syilx people show acknowledgement and respect is through songs, dances, prayers, feasts, give-a-ways, potlucks...and what have you. Much of these means have been labeled as ceremonies since there was some formal act or gesture in which we performed our ways of thanks. However, what the Syilx people interpret as a ceremony may differ from one person to the next and will differ from what other races or religions may view as a ceremony.

Sweat lodges, smudges, root feasts, dances and give-away's are considered ceremonies by some but not by all. Smudging, for example may be considered a ceremony by some, since there is a person who is performing the smudge and a person who is being smudged. Others may see the act of smudging more as a prayer and less of a ceremony. Neither belief is wrong, since the act itself does not change only the name in which we call it changes. The amount of respect we have for the act which is being performed does not change, again it is the name in which we label this act that changes.

According to the Syilx way of life a ceremony is an act of respect, a voice of thanks, an honoring of or a prayer for the subject of our ceremony. It is not necessarily an organized form of ritual we practice but is about expressing our beliefs and exercising our practices to show honor, respect, give thanks and as prayers for our subject.The very connection to the land by the people is given in the form of recognition through ceremony.

We have ceremonies to celebrate the human life cycle from the time of birth, to adolescence, to marriage and even for the death of a person. Throughout this life cycle we acknowledges and give thanks through ceremonies that welcome a baby, for the giving of a Syilx name, for the puberty training of our youth, for marriages and even for death. There are ceremonies done for food gatherings, hunting, fishing, various spiritual training, and for requesting of special attention to a particular situation or event in ones life.

We can chose to learn from our traditional and spiritual elders to live in harmony and in balance with ourselves and with things around ourselves. We can choose how to feel about your relationships with what is been given to you and the world around you and how you think about things. It will become clearer as you pay more attention to the connection between you and everything around you. Your heart and mind, together will govern our responsibility and respect for the land, our mother earth, regardless of what we call our acts (ceremony, prayer, gathering, celebration...).

Contemporary Beliefs

Today, our definition of culture is arguably different to some and indifferent to others. It is viewed as an organized ritual or religion based on our beliefs and is founded by what we say and how we say it, what we do and how we do it and what we're wearing while its being done. To our youth culture is knowing our language, powwow dancing, wearing clothing designed and decorated with ribbons and patterns, singing, dancing and is about going to and performing ceremonies.

While this may be true its not all true. Some of our people's beliefs have been intertwined with European beliefs about culture and religion. An example, while the Syilx people enjoy, attend and even dance at powwows, the powwow is not an original form of Okanagan dancing. Okanagan dancing is a style all of its own. This doesn't mean the powwow is less celebrated or wrong to Syilx, it just means we have our own ways of dancing and singing. The powwow is not originally a part of our culture or way of life-but has been adapted into the Syilx lifestyles.

Every year, Okanagan dance and theatre groups start practicing/ rehearsing or someone pulls out their drum to start singing for the first time. Every year, one by one, Syilx culture is making its comeback into modern society and every year we give thanks to those that have gone before us and will arrive after us.