While growing up on the Penticton Indian Reserve in British Columbia, Armstrong received a formal education at a one-room school there, as well as a traditional Okanagan education from her family and tribal elders.[9] She learned to speak the Okanagan and English languages fluently. For many years since her childhood, Armstrong has studied traditional Okanagan teachings and practiced traditional ways under the direction of Elders.[10]
Armstrong discovered her interest and talent for writing at age fifteen when a poem she wrote about John F. Kennedy was published in a local newspaper (Voices). As a teenager, Armstrong continued to publish poetry and develop her literary voice by reading and listening to works by Aboriginal authors such as Pauline Johnson and Chief Dan George, who she identifies as her early influences.[9]
In 1978, Armstrong received a diploma of Fine Arts from Okanagan College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Victoria where she studied Creative Writing. In 2009, she obtained a Ph.D. in Indigenous Environmental Ethics from the University of Greifswald in Germany.[11]
