Waiʔ iskwist qwəɬxanaʔ isəmaskiwst “Victoria”!
Hello! My nsyilxcan name is "qwəɬxanaʔ"(pronounced kwel-han-nah") and my english name is Victoria!
This is the official website for Victoria Jaenig. If you are looking for her company / collective website please check out the following:
ABOUT VICTORIA JAENIG
Victoria "Tori" Jaenig is a three-time award winning Indigenous Storyteller, Media Artist and Producer, winning awards from Penticton Arts Council for Indigenous Arts,
from CHBC TV (Now Global) for Aboriginal Imagery and was named a Community Champion from the Okanagan Nation Women's Awards for her work as a Producer "Utilizing
Technology for Indigenous Knowledge". Tori presented on panels including Imaginative Film + Media Arts Festival for New Media, at various BC post-secondary institutes
and Indigenous communities throughout British Columbia. She produced over 30 short films, music videos, documentaries and informational videos and has exhibited in
group and solo exhibitions or festivals for over twenty years. Victoria toured parts of Europe, Western Canada and Northwestern USA as a dance and theatre performer
with Secwepemc Theatre, Rainbow Productions and Nak’ulamen Performance Collective with productions she performed in, wrote, directed, and/ or produced. This
experience has led her to be a mentor and instructor of Indigenous Storytelling and Performance, Media Arts, Marketing classes and Portfolio Development as part of
the National Indigenous Professional Artist Training (NIPAT) program at the Internationally renown Indigenous Post Secondary institute, En'owkin Centre.
In 2002 Victoria developed a framework for utilizing technology for Indigenous Knowledge to protect Indigenous Knowledge Keepers and Language Speakers and the information they are being asked to share on digital devices! This has been the foundation of her life's work, allowing her the opportunity to record and document Indigenous language speakers, knowledge keepers and communities for the last twenty years.
With more than twenty years in the marketing, communications and arts sectors Victoria mentored more than 1200 Indigenous Artists and Aboriginal Youth in the areas of Film, Media and Marketing since graduating from the Digital Film (Media) program at the Centre and Arts and Technology- Okanagan in 2007. With her solid fifteen-plus (15+) year background in the Aboriginal/ Indigenous business and community/ economic development industries Tori has been involved in the start-up, growth, or expansion of 32 Aboriginal businesses in 14 communities, provided technical or marketing support to 87 Aboriginal businesses in 17 first nations communities and assisted more than 400 un-or-underemployed clients in the areas of preemployment and life skills. As a result of this work, Victoria facilitates workshops and presentations in community on various areas of personal and professional development for individuals, organizations, businesses and communities.
Tori has been an active member in the Penticton Indian Band community, the Tkemlups te Secwepemc community, and amongst the larger Indigenous community sitting on local, regional, provincial and national tables, committees and boards advocating for initiatives, policies, programs, opportunities and change in relation to policy development, strategic planning/ development/ implementation & both Canadian and Indigenous governance structures.
As an Indigenous woman, Victoria was born and raised on the unceded traditional territory of the syilx peoples as a descendant of the syilx and secwepemc nations (Canada) and the Colville Confederated Tribes (USA). She was raised in a family of knowledge keepers that are fluent in nsyilxcen (language of the Okanogan people) and in a manner most believe to be non-existent. Victoria was trained in the art of storytelling and performance using land based (including animals, plants and elemental or sacred beings) methodologies and syilx lifestyles, practices or worldviews. She is an apprentice of the nsyilxcen language, songs, dances, ceremony, protocols and is one of a few remaining trained Okanagan dancers from her territory. Through her work with En'owkin Centre's Nak’ulamen Performance Collective and the other six performers, she assisted in revitalizing Syilx performance back into community. Having her first child at sixteen and her fourth (and last) at twenty-one, Victoria is the #formerteenmama to four young adults and has since traditionally adopted another daughter making her a mom to her three sons and two daughters. She is also a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, niece and a matriarch in her family and accepts the responsibilities those roles mean to her as an Indigenous woman. Through the use of media and new media arts and technologies as an Indigenous Storyteller and Producer, Victoria provides audiences with a body of work sharing the Indigenous perspective, voice and world view using a variety of mediums including performance, video, photography and interactive web design.
