Snxakila Clyde Tallio is a member of the Nuxalk First Nation and fluent Nuxalk speaker, he holds the position of Alkw, a ceremonial speaker, historian, and cultural leader, after completing extensive traditional training with 15 Nuxalk elders.
For the past 20 years, Snxakila has dedicated his career to the revitalization of Nuxalk culture, language, and ceremonies, making a lasting impact on Nuxalk education, stewardship, and governance. As Cultural Director of the Nuxalk Nation, he is currently managing the development of the Nation’s first Big House in over 100 years. He is also a founding member of the Nuxalk Ancestral Governance Department, where he has collaborated with hereditary and elected leadership to articulate Nuxalk ancestral protocols and provide a defensible basis for the Nation to assert their inherent rights.
Snxakila’s expertise has been sought by acclaimed institutions worldwide, including UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Chicago Field Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he redesigned the Nuxalk section of the Northwest Coast Hall. He has co-authored academic articles and presented at international conferences on the application of Indigenous knowledge in environmental management.
In 2023, Snxakila received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of British Columbia, becoming one of the youngest recipients of this distinction and the second Nuxalkmc to receive this honour from UBC.