Kama Steliga
Kama Steliga is a prominent advocate for Indigenous communities in Canada, born in Kenniwick, Washington, in 1967, and later moving to Lillooet, British Columbia. With a focus on supporting women and addressing health issues such as trauma and HIV/AIDS, she served as the executive director of the Lillooet Friendship Centre Society. This organization aims to assist Indigenous Canadians and has been pivotal in advocating for funding and resources to combat homelessness and food insecurity in Lillooet, a community with a population of under five thousand. Steliga has been involved in various initiatives, including a national survey on Aboriginal language programs aimed at preserving Indigenous languages through immersion education for preschool-aged children.
She has also represented Indigenous interests at the United Nations, advocating for greater inclusion in climate change discussions. Her work extends to managing community services for the Westbank First Nation, which includes crucial programs on addiction, mental health, and family support. Throughout her career, Steliga has emphasized acceptance, diversity, and self-reliance, striving to ensure that Indigenous cultures and languages thrive in contemporary society. Her efforts have played a significant role in developing programs that support the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of Indigenous communities.
On this Page
Kama Steliga
Activist and leader
- Born: 1967
- Birthplace: Kennewick, Washington, United States
Significance: Kama Steliga is a Canadian activist who has worked for various Indigenous organizations over her career. She headed an organization that works to empower Indigenous Canadians and provides a range of services and programs for the community. In 2005, she was one of a thousand women from around the globe nominated as a group for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Background
Kama Steliga was born in Kenniwick, Washington, in 1967. She lived in the United States until she was ten, when she moved to Canada. As an adult she lived and worked in Lillooett in British Columbia in West Canada. For a number of years, Steliga served as the executive director of the Lillooet Friendship Centre Society.
Life’s Work
The Lillooet Friendship Centre Society works for the benefit of Indigenous Canadians. Steliga fought officials who claimed that Lillooet, with a population of fewer than five thousand, could not have a problem with homelessness and denied it funding to address the issue. She advocated for support from outside the community, such as government funding and programs, as well as self-reliance. In 2005, she lamented the deep funding cuts that forced communities to cut badly needed programs at a time when 10 percent of the population of Lillooet relied on food banks. She said the cuts were poorly thought out and undermined communities’ efforts to be self-sufficient.
Steliga said she was drawn to the Lillooet Friendship Centre Society because of its emphasis on acceptance, diversity, and self-reliance. She was involved in its 2007 national survey on Aboriginal language programs that sought to understand the scope of Indigenous language loss and education. She supported such programs to teach preschool-aged Indigenous Canadians their people’s tongues through immersion in the language. Elders fluent in their languages ran the programs.
Steliga was among twenty community leaders interviewed for the March 2008 District of Lillooet report “Advantage Lillooet: The Land, the Community, the Opportunities.” Lillooet, in British Columbia, is one of the oldest North American areas that have been continuously inhabited. Evidence indicates it has been inhabited for more than eight thousand years; both seasonal and permanent sites were used by the St’at’imc people.
In 2008, she attended the Seventh Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) and was one of more than 220 Indigenous representatives who signed the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) Appeal. The UNPO Appeal calls for increased inclusion of Indigenous Peoples in discussions, decisions, and implementation of projects related to climate change. Steliga was in attendance as a representative of the National Association of Friendship Centres, an organization based in Ottawa that helps Indigenous Canadians in urban communities to access services.
In 2011, she was manager of the Department of Community Services for Westbank First Nation in Kelowna, British Columbia. The department provided addiction services, child and family services, counseling, mental health and wellness, a youth center, and other programs and services. It offered community workshops on crisis counseling, family violence prevention, suicide intervention, trauma counseling, and other topics. Steliga was one of the consultants on a language nest program that was funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage First Peoples Culture Council and First Nations Aboriginal Early Childhood Development Reinvestment Initiative. Seven children were enrolled in the language nest in 2013. The children were cared for by support workers and at least two elders who spoke only their native tongue, the Okanagan language Nsyilxcen. This style of immersive language program received support in multiple nations. Community leaders advocated for language nests to build community and ensure the languages did not die out. For example, in 2013, only eighteen elders were known to speak Nsyilxcen.
Impact
Steliga has actively worked at the local level as an advocate for Indigenous communities. Through her leadership, organizations have developed and implemented programs to support physical, mental, and emotional health. Her work has benefited the Indigenous communities she has served by supporting their cultures and traditions, such as keeping their languages alive and adding preschool education programs.
Bibliography
Helston, Charlotte. “New Hope, New Interest in Ancient Okanagan Language.” InfoTel News, 15 Feb. 2013, infotel.ca/newsitem/new-hope-new-interest-in-ancient-okanagan-language/it805. Accessed 5 July 2023.
“Kanada Kama Steliga.” 1000 Peace Women, 2005, 1000peacewomen.org/de/netzwerk/1000-friedensfrauen/kama-steliga-674. Accessed 5 July 2023.
“Over 229 Signatures Collected for Appeal Launched at UNPFII in New York.” Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, 3 May 2008, www.unpo.org/content/view/8127/88/. Accessed 5 July 2023.
Tenove, Chris. “Wanted in Rural BC: Politicians Who See Potential.” The Tyee, 26 Apr. 2005, thetyee.ca/News/2005/04/26/WantedinRuralBC/. Accessed 5 July 2023.