Note: Funding for these two awards is generously provided by the Lobstick Foundation. 

Undergraduate Award
Dr. Aimee August Award in Indigenous Language Proficiency
Dr. Aimee August was a Secwépemc elder who worked tirelessly to help revive and preserve the language, culture, and traditions of the Secwépemc whose traditional lands occupy a vast territory of the BC interior. A well-respected Elder in her community, August worked for decades with linguists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists and ethnobotanists to record and document Secwépemc language and culture. She compiled the first Secwépemc language-learning kit for the local community. In 1992, SFU and the Secwépemc Education Institute awarded August an honourary doctorate at a special convocation ceremony in Kamloops, where INLP was first formed. 

Graduate Award
Dr. Ruby Peter Award in Indigenous Language Proficiency 
Dr. Ruby Peter (Sti’tum’atul’wut) was a respected knowledge holder from the Quamichan Band, Cowichan Tribes, and an honourary doctorate recipient from both SFU and the University of Victoria. An accomplished linguistic researcher, Peter demonstrated an unfaltering lifetime commitment towards Hul'q'umi'num' language revitalization, instruction, analysis, and documentation. As the lead Elder in the teaching team for SFU community-based language programs in Duncan, BC, Peter was instrumental in the development of INLP's Diploma in Indigenous Language Proficiency. For over six decades she trained new speakers of the language and currently there are over 200 fluent second language speakers and many thousands who have a basic knowledge of the language, largely thanks to Peter and the language teachers she trained.