50 Remarkable Alumni: Educator Christine Seymour supports Indigenous students and language

When Christine Seymour crossed the stage as the first-ever Indigenous graduate of UFV’s Bachelor of Science program in 2000, she planned for a future in science.

But her culture and language came calling.

She worked for a couple of years at the federal agricultural research facility in Agassiz before entering the teacher education program at Simon Fraser.

“Even before I finished my teacher training, I was being asked to start studying Halq’eméylem, the language of the Stó:lō people,” she recalls. “I would commute home from SFU and then go to Halq’eméylem class at Stó:lō Shxwelí at night.”

The need to learn and preserve the language was urgent. With very few living speakers of the language, the next generation would have to take up the challenge and pass the knowledge on to future generations for Halq’eméylem to survive.
Christine did have some knowledge of the language before she began to study. When she was younger, she and her siblings and cousins used to visit their grandfather Roy Point, he introduced them to a few words at a time. And those words stuck with her.
Following her training, she became a Halq’eméylem teacher in the Abbotsford and then Chilliwack school districts. And then another opportunity presented itself, when she was asked to apply to be District Principal for Indigenous Education for the Fraser-Cascade School District, an area stretching from Harrison Hot Springs to Boston Bar, including Hope and Agassiz.

“At first I said no, teaching the language is my calling,” she says. “But after the fourth time, I agreed. It was a steep learning curve for me, but I’ve discovered that I can have an impact through the work that I do.”

Her focus is on supporting Indigenous students, but it also extends to providing teachers with Indigenous curriculum content and supporting the Indigenous staff who work with the students.

“A lot of our support staff come from the same communities as our students and have been affected by the same traumas such as the legacy of the residential schools and the ‘60s scoop. So we have to take care of them too.”

As for the students, Christine says that the needs are as diverse as the people and range from needing a coach to help them finish high school to wanting cultural safety training.

Christine is from a well-known Stó:lō family. Born and raised on the Skowkale First Nation, she also has family roots in Sts’ailes and she identifies as a proud member of the Ts’elxwéyeqw tribe. Her Indigenous name is Tselxá`t. Her father is Steven Point, former Lieutenant Governor of BC, and her mother is Gwen Point, former chancellor of UFV. Her sister, Áʼa꞉líya Warbus, serves as MLA for Chilliwack-Cultus Lake.

Christine has fond memories of the first UFV Chilliwack campus. She recalls playing under a table as her mother attended classes, and later, bringing her own son, Tyrone Junior, to the campus daycare while she studied.

“I remember going there with my mum and wondering ‘will I get to go to this big school?’ And I did,” she recalls. “I loved the old building. I spent a lot of time there studying at the library.”

As one of UFV’s 50 Remarkable Alumni, Christine is now inspiring others. She was a guest speaker at UFV’s recent International Women’s Day panel and was nominated for a Fraser Valley Diversity Award.

“I’ve lived most of my life being seen first as an Indigenous person, so it was nice to be featured at an event where I was seen as a woman first for a change,” she notes.

Christine is raising two teenagers at home in Skowkale, and is a grandmother now, through her eldest son, now 30. She is involved in Indigenous cultural activities and is an enthusiastic member of the Star Nation canoe club.

And she looks to her parents for inspiration.

“I invited them to parent day at my kids’ elementary school and everyone just wanted to talk to them,” she says. “But I understand. They are so inspirational. When my dad was Lieutenant Governor, he built a canoe to leave at Government House when his term was over. When asked why, he explained that it’s a reminder that we are all in the same canoe, and we have to work together as one heart and one mind.”