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This is an immersive audio & visual experience that requires a larger screen size to experience

Not Extinct
NOT EXTINCT
Keeping the Sinixt Way

"The truth is that we, the Sinixt, exist.
And that here, there is no reconciliation possible without recognition of the Sinixt."

Territory

“As the People of this land who have been declared extinct, we know exactly what’s been pushed from
this landscape.”

About

This virtual interactive website is based on the book, Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way. The book features traditional and contemporary Sinixt stories. Each story illuminates the Sinixt relationship with the upper Columbia River watershed and the Sinixt quest to reclaim their rights and responsibilities in their x̌aʔx̌aʔ təmxʷúlaʔxʷ, their sacred homeland.

The website is a collaboration between the Blood of Life Collective and the Slocan Valley Community Arts Council, inspired by the Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way exhibit curated by Tim van Wijk at Gallery 2 in Grand Forks. It was designed by Brainflex and is the property of the Blood of Life Collective. This site will expand and grow to include future Blood of Life Collective projects.

Gratitude and thanks to Sinixt storytellers Marilyn James and Taress Alexis, to the regional artists whose illustrations accompany each story, the BC Arts Council, T'kikstn Language Project, First Peoples’ Cultural Council, Heritage Canada, Maa Press, Kootenay Coop Radio, Andrea Levin, and to Tim van Wijk for their support of this project.

Not Extinct: Keeping the Sinixt Way, by Marilyn James and Taress Alexis, is available on the Maa Press website or your favourite local bookstore or gift shop.

Language

This page is part of the T'kikstn Language Revitalization Project. T'kikstn - which means walking stick in Snslxcin - represents the work of bringing the language of the Sinixt, back to the land that birthed it. T'kiktsn has been funded by the First Peoples' Cultural Council and Heritage Canada.

The negative impacts of colonization and residential schools on Indigenous languages and dialects cannot be overstated. In the case of snslxcin (Sinixt dialect), we work to revitalize snslxcin from fragmentary sources. As we learn more our knowledge evolves. The spellings and definitions of words might therefore continue to change as we engage with the ongoing process of revitalization.