Sechelt (shashishalhem) is the ancestral language of the Sechelt people (shishalh), whose territory extends from Jervais Inlet to Howe Sound on the south coast of British Columbia. Like many other Indigenous langugages, Sechelt has been in decline for over a century and is now in peril of becoming extinct. The Sechelt Dictionary is part of an ongoing effort to preserve a knowledge of this language and to encourage a revival of its use by present and future generations of Sechelt people.