UBC Linguistics is very excited to share the news that Ktunaxa Elder and longtime friend of the department, Vi Birdstone, will be receiving a UBC Doctor of Letters during spring graduation on May 23, 2025! A Ktunaxa speaker from ʔaq̓am (Cranbrook) BC, Vi has served five times since 2011 as a consultant for our department’s field methods sequence, most recently in 2023-24. Through this role, Vi has not only taught Ktunaxa to generations of linguistics students and helped train them as fieldworkers, and co-authored multiple academic presentations and papers, but she has developed deep connections with many in our community as a mentor, research collaborator, and friend. In addition, Vi has been teaching free weekly Ktunaxa language classes since 2018, and since 2020 these online classes have brought together members of the broader Ktunaxa community from across Canada and the US. This honour is extremely well-deserved, and recognizes among many things Vi’s invaluable contributions to linguistics and the documentation of an Indigenous language of BC.
Suknikitnaⱡawasni!
Vi Birdstone
