OKIB’s newest gathering space opens in Vernon, B.C. – Okanagan
The Okanagan Indian Band held a grand opening ceremony for its newly constructed Cultural Arbor situated at Vernon B.C’s Komasket Park in Syilx territory.
The celebration welcomed many individuals from the OKIB who got here to see their neighborhood’s latest gathering house.
“It’s actually essential to our neighborhood as a result of it’s a kind of locations the place we’ve got occasions, households come down and have some kind of household gathering. I imply, you’ll by no means discover a nicer place wherever within the Okanagan, while you go searching,” stated Chief Byron Louis of the Okanagan Indian Band.
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The Arbor was constructed within the Nineteen Eighties and decommissioned in 2018. The rebuild contains many items of the unique Arbor and is anticipated to final in the neighborhood for many years to come back.
“The opposite one was (began) within the 80s and because it was product of wooden, there was lots of rot in there, so we needed to take every part down. However what you see is handled wooden and so this one, I feel, goes to final (longer),” stated Louis.
The Arbor can accommodate roughly 300 individuals. It’s a round open-air roofed constructing that options bleacher-style seating that flows across the inside the construction in 4 tiers.
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Okanagan Indian Band reaches settlement to purchase O’Keefe Vary
Lots of the neighborhood members who got here out to the occasion have been grateful to have the Arbor again.
“That is how we carry our household and our individuals again collectively once more, we want this for our interactions with the final two years of covid and the fires, that is so essential for our individuals,” stated OKIB neighborhood member Deb Nicholas.
The OKIB plans to carry extra occasions on the Arbor as quickly as attainable since many have been placed on maintain resulting from COVID-19.
