FOOD FIGHT | Regional politicians are demanding changes to the provincial meat regulations [A10]
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Friday, June 22, 2012
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Project reawakens Okanagan culture RICHARD ROLKE
non-natives is being mended and returning to that immediate postfter decades of separation contact period when economic and and misunderstanding, there family connections existed. is a permanent monument “It’s a means for us to come to reigniting the bond between the together again,” he said. Okanagan’s original inhabitants Elder Madeline Gregoire and those who followed. has been a leader in promoting A full-sized pit house — qwc’i? the Okanagan culture, and on in the Okanagan language — was Wednesday, she was offering tobacunveiled before 600 enthusiastic co to visitors so they could place it elementary students on a fire and pray to at Komasket Park the Creator. on the Okanagan “This place is a Indian Reserve sacred place,” she Wednesday. said, adding that “The spirit of pit houses tradithe project is such tionally were open that it’s meant to to everyone. be shared with our “Different friends and neighfamilies would be bours,” said Stewart in here as a comPhillip, grand chief munity. People of the Okanagan travelled all over Nation. picking berries and “Our successes in drying food.” life depend on our This is the first ability to sustain and pit house conLISA VANDERVELDE/MORNING STAR nurture relationstructed in the area Builder Eric Mitchell points ships.” in about 200 years. out structural components of The pit house “When you’re the winter pit house. was a collabin there, you feel orative effort of the so welcome and Okanagan Indian Band, the Vernon safe, like you’re in the arms of your School District and the First mother,” said Eric Mitchell, who Nations Friendship Centre. led the construction team. For Phillip, it’s a sign that the The building process has reafsometimes strained relationfirmed Mitchell’s respect for his ship between First Nations and ancestors. Morning Star Staff
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Lead singer Tim Edwards (left) and Tyler Jensen of the Little Hawk Singers perform at the opening ceremony. See vernonmorningstar.com for a video.
VERNON TOYOTA
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“It took us six months with trucks and the equipment of today and they did it without these things,” he said. “It amazes me how they lifted up the logs by hand.” The structure is 30-feet-wide and 16-feet high at the peak. It may be ancient technology but digging into the earth and covering the pit with timbers is extremely practical. “They are warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” said Phillip. It’s expected the pit house will become a critical aspect of the Vernon School District’s curriculum. “We’re very proud to be part of it,” said Bill Turanski, school district chairperson. “This is a symbol of what can be accomplished in an environment of mutual understanding and respect.” Among those exploring the pit house Wednesday was Jackson Appleby, a Grade 4 student who travelled by bus from J.W. Inglis Elementary in Lumby. “It’s so big,” he said as he craned his neck upwards, trying to take in the full scope of the ladder carved out of a log. “It’s so cool that they built this.” Reactions like that are exactly what Byron Louis wants to hear. “It’s a place of learning,” said the chief of the Okanagan Indian Band. For Bill Cohen, construction of the pit house is about respect and tolerance. “We’re here to celebrate Okanagan knowledge and new relations,” said Cohen, a band councillor and co-chairperson of the school district’s aboriginal education committee. “It’s a place that’s welcoming and celebrates the diversity of everyone here.” Beyond creating awareness among non-natives, the goal of the pit house is to introduce Okanagan youth to their deep, rich culture — something generations of children had been forced or urged to
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Madeline Gregoire, an Okanagan Indian Band elder, explains the traditional ceremony used to bless the new pit house at Komasket Park Wednesday. abandon. Dina Brown has absorbed the lessons from Gregoire and other elders. “It’s a blessing and an honour to revive our old ways and to know who we are and where we come from,” said Brown, who is graduat-
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ing from W.L. Seaton Secondary and wants to become an Okanagan teacher. Mitchell is left feeling optimistic about the future of his community by turning to the past. “From this day forward, it can only get better,” he said.
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