Capilano University (CapU) is set to honour Lil’wat Elder Saw̓t Martina Pierre with an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contributions to reconciliation, empowerment and cultural preservation.
Pierre is a residential school survivor and lifelong educator whose work revolves around revitalizing the Nation’s traditional language—for others as much as herself.
“I had always wanted to be a teacher, and I had always wanted to revive my culture and language and my spirituality, [my] rights as a legal person,” she told Pique. “After I had my family, I learned my language to be a teacher.”
Starting a community school
Pierre was instrumental in starting up Lil’wat’s first-ever community school in the 1970s.
The Nation had a day school run by nuns as far back as the 1930s, with classes available to members of the Nation from kindergarten up to Grade 7. But after the publication of the 1969 White Paper, parents in the Nation demanded a change.
The White Paper, formally known as the Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian Policy, was a policy proposal that aimed to eliminate Indian status, abolish the Indian Act and transfer responsibility for Indigenous affairs to the provinces.
On the education front, the policy would have integrated First Nations children into mainstream education systems—potentially at the loss of culturally relevant programs and resources—and risked putting education policy in the hands of a provincial government removed from the specific needs of communities.
While the policies contained therein never became law, they sparked widespread opposition among Indigenous communities in Canada.
“[The children] didn't want to go back to public school, so the parents got concerned about the continuation of their children with their education,” said Pierre. “They got together and said, ‘Well, let's take them out of the public school and start our own.’”
The Nation formed a board to negotiate for limited funding and resources from the government, including teacher training. Pierre was part of the first cohort of Lil’wat instructors to go through SFU’s teaching program.
“We had to create our own curriculum, too, because it wasn't coming from the B.C. Education Department,” she recalled. “We had to create our own curriculum to teach our language and culture.”
She noted there weren’t a lot of models to look to around B.C.; Lil’wat was one of the first Nations in the province to create a community school with traditional and cultural coursework from scratch.
As Pierre and her team worked to craft a curriculum for the incoming classes, she was also reconnecting with the language herself. She’d been forced to unlearn Ucwalmícwts, the Nation’s traditional language, when she attended a residential school.
She credits her husband of 64 years, Paul Pierre, senior, with her own re-learning of the language. His mother used the traditional language all her life, and he grew up with parents who didn’t speak English very often. But because he only attended residential school for one year, he’s fluent in Ucwalmícwts.
“He just spoke the language and that helped me,” said Pierre. “He was my mentor in the language program—not really for developing the curriculum, but for me to undo and heal from what I learned in colonized education.”
Pierre and her cohort opened Ts̓zil Community School in the 1970s.
Shortly after the school launched, Pierre obtained a master’s degree from UBC and became a program coordinator for the school.
Ts̓zil Community School later became Xet̓ólacw Community School. It currently serves about 240 students, emphasizing the integration of Lil'wat language and culture into the curriculum.
Launching a language program
Pierre’s contributions to Lil’wat education don’t stop at K-12. She’s also been instrumental in developing and teaching post-secondary language and culture courses.
In 1998, the Ts̓zil Learning Centre launched as a hub for adult learning and vocational training in Mount Currie. CapU faculty started to teach at the school in 1999.
In 2002, Pierre was offered the position of dean at the Learning Centre. She worked with CapU to develop and lead the Lil’wat Languages program, teaching Ucwalmícwts to her students. Capilano describes her courses as “a model for Indigenous language preservation within post-secondary education.”
She’s found, time and time again, that the act of teaching is a healing one; it allows her to practice and celebrate her history, and surrounds her with young people whose emphasis is on learning rather than mourning.
“My students in the university courses did not want to hear the grievances of our people in relation to the loss of our language,” she said. “They wanted to explore their history. They wanted to learn the language and the culture.”
As interest spiked in her courses (even once cresting 60 applicants in a single semester), Pierre decided to start mentoring students who could teach in her stead. She retired about four years back once those student leaders were ready; they’ve since gone on to become educators elsewhere throughout the province.
Pierre initially hesitated to accept her honorary degree. And she’s still grappling with its implications.
“I never really wear my credentials anywhere as a native person,” she said. “You want to be level with the people. I love all my students. I'm just a facilitator for their learning.”
She also noted she once wanted to go back to school to earn her PhD, before life got in the way. Still, she notes, she doesn’t need a PhD to explore the questions that matter to her.
“I've always wanted to explore the transitioning that we need to do as Indigenous people to be not under the Indian Act," she said. "That’s the big move. We're wards of the federal government under the Indian Act, and we need to find out what we want in life and how to make changes for community, for our Nation and for the care of our land—our traditional territory.”
Alongside her work in education, Pierre is also the carrier of the Women’s Warrior Song, which she received from a woman warrior while praying during a sacred sweat lodge ceremony.
The song has become a central feature of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2+) movement across the country.
She is also the Language and Culture Advisor for Skel7aqsten Skel7antsut, an inherent rights organization in Lil’wat.
Pierre will be honoured alongside four other honorary degree recipients at Capilano University during its spring convocation ceremonies from June 10 through 12.
