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International Women’s Day: Patsy Grinder

Tsilhqot’in language teacher
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For International Women’s Day, we talked with some amazing women around the Cariboo Chilcotin. There are enough incredible women in this community to fill several books, but please read on for International Women’s Day series on just a few of them.

Patsy Grinder is a Tsilhqot’in teacher who has been passing on her knowledge of her language for 30 years.

English is Grinder’s second language. She grew up speaking Tsilhqot’in in her community of Tl’etinqox (Anaham) where she now teaches the language at the new school there.

Until January, she taught Tsilhqot’in to students at Lake City Secondary School, at the Williams Lake campus, for 28 years.

“I wanted to be a teacher ever since I was young,” she said.

“I just don’t want to lose our language and our culture. The students, if they don’t get it all, at least they’ve got some knowledge of some of the language.”

Read more: International Women’s Day: Cindy Chappell

She started, she said, going to the meadows to make hay, where she would later create a fort and teach the other youth around her.

Now her classes revolve around the seasons.

“March it is the month of snow melt, so you are getting ready for spring to come. April is the returning month, where the birds return and animals start to come out, so you learn about animals and birds.”

She also teaches the alphabet and the different sounds and vowels.

Outside of school, she says she works to get students involved in walking and outdoor activities, and has recently become a grandma.

Read more: International Women’s Day: Debbie Seland

Women, she says, have always played a strong role in her community.

“I think the women are the leaders in our community,” she says. “When I was growing up, my grandma was our hierarchy and all my uncles would come to our house and would ask for advice from her.”

Grinder worries, somewhat that her language will fade without more people to teach it.

Still she plans to keep teaching. It’s the interaction with the students that she enjoys, she says.

“I’ve taught their parents, and then I taught their kids. I just love teaching. They keep me young.”

Read more: International Women’s Day: Meera Shah