Judy Matthew

Judy Matthew in the school staff room.

For nearly 30 years, Judy Matthew has been a staple of Neqweyqwelsten School in the Simpcw First Nations. She teaches kindergarten and Grade 1 and 2.

She grew up in the area and returned with her high school sweetheart to raise their son in 1986. Both she and her husband are educators and she believes strongly in what she’s doing at the school.

 The school’s focus on language and culture is important to her as a teacher and a community member.

 “It has to do with identity and belonging. That is the core of this school was established. It was established not in a reactive sense but in a proactive sense because the parents at that time wanted more language and culture embedded in their children’s formal education,” she said.

When the school started, there was recognition that it needed to be done now or there was a chance that it might never happen.

“We had the resources to do it and we knew things were becoming scarce,” she said. 

“Fluent speakers are very very very rare, fluent speakers being people who spoke Secwepmectsin before they spoke English, as their first language and I guess because it’s an oral tradition, our elders are our books so when an elder passes away or a fluent speaker passes away, that is a body of knowledge that’s very distinct that is lost and I do believe that we are at a very very critical point of maybe less than five fluent speakers.”

Now she’s seeing former students return to the community and expressing a sense of pride over their culture. That strong cultural background comes in part from the school. For Matthew, that’s head and heart.

“It’s what we wanted. It’s sort of manifesting our purpose. It’s coming around so the original people who had started the school intended is starting to come to fruition. We’re seeing it in our community. That’s the head and the heart is just very very proud of them. We have a significant number of successful graduates and Charli and Rachael are chief among them and it’s just really really good to see people taking their rightful place in life,” she said.

Culture forms the keystone of the community and the school.

“Everybody here is Secwepemc. Everybody here lives within a Secwepemc context or at least directly connected to being Secwepemc, my piece on that is there are probably 600 people on the face of this earth who are Simpcw. It’s a very small group. It’s a very unique group and I think that unique group lives through our school and lives through our children.”

That focus on culture plays itself out every morning at the school when the children and the teachers say a prayer to the creator.

“It starts us at a place of piece. It starts us at a place of connectedness - past and future. It quietens the spirit and opens us up to the sacredness of the day,” said Matthew.

“It’s a way of being and over the years it’s become a way of being. I’m guided by elders and guided by values and it just comes into the day.”

When it comes to the school, Matthew feels hopeful about its future and success.

“The school is strong...this year we have three in kindergarten, next year we have five, the year after we have six... and again it’s strong parental commitment,” she said.

 “I love everything about it. I wake up and I like coming here. It’s a good place to be. It’s a dynamic group of people to work with and no two days are the same. We grow into our lives and this is part of it.”