North Okanagan Heritage Field Trip – Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary

Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary 12408 Coldstream Creek Rd, Coldstream, British Columbia, Canada

Be a tourist in your own town or take summer guests to learn more about this tucked away hidden gem, Bishop Wild Bird Sanctuary, on the shores of Kalamalka Lake. Join a small group tour of the 4.25 acre nature reservation kept to preserve habit and wild spaces for birds and wildlife in Coldstream. View the Native Plant Garden, with five different sub-zones of plants native to the climate of the North Okanagan, the osprey platform with nesting young, the Giant Pacific Willows, which are often home to Great Blue Heron, and the wood ducks who nest in trees on shore. Take in the valley from the viewing platform and learn about the legacy of the Lydia Bishop, who left her beautiful lakefront property “for the birds”!

Recurring

North Okanagan Heritage Field Trips

The popular Heritage Field Trips around the North Okanagan are back for the fall! Find out more about these intriguing sites in the North Okanagan and learn the stories of the people behind the places. 

Click on the event title to get all the details and learn more about where these tours will take you each week!

Recurring

Okanagan Landing Stationhouse Museum

Paddlewheel Park 7813 Okanagan Landing Road, Vernon, BC, Canada

Travel back in time to when sternwheelers plied the waters of Okanagan Lake with the Okanagan Landing Stationhouse Museum!

This satellite of the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives celebrates the history of the area, and houses an amazing 21'x4' scale model depicting the Okanagan Landing in 1914, when sternwheelers provided the only transportation from Vernon to Penticton.

The museum at Paddlewheel Park is open for the summer Fridays to Sundays from 11 am to 3 pm. Admission is by donation. For off season or out-of-hours guided group tours, please call 250-542-2500.

Learn & Connect: Deconstructing the Doctrine of Discovery

Learn + Connect is a free online program that has been developed so participants can explore colonial perspectives of history, reflect on how that influences our understanding and actions, and discuss ways we can move forward. This session will look at the Doctrine of Discovery through the lens of a film put out by the Anglican Church* about the devastating ruling by Pope Alexander VI that decreed that any land inhabited by Indigenous Peoples was declared “empty” and the inhabitants “non-human”. “Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen Land, Strong Hearts” will be the foundation of our enquiry into how this centuries old document continues to profoundly – and negatively – impact Indigenous people today. Click on event for ticket link.

Deconstructing the Doctrine of Discovery

The second session in the Learn + Connect series, invites participants back to a discussion about the Doctrine of Discovery to explore themes around land theft, genocide and personal responsibility towards reconciliation.

The Doctrine of Discovery was a late-medieval philosophy that was used to justify imperialist ventures and legitimize the colonization of Indigenous peoples in various regions around the world. The centuries old document informed Canada’s earliest European explorers, and continues to profoundly – and negatively – impact Indigenous people today.

Click on event for ticket link.

Learn + Connect: Understanding UNDRIP with Chief Byron Louis

As outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Final Report, UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) provides the necessary principles, norms, and standards for reconciliation to flourish in twenty-first-century Canada. And while the declaration clearly establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous Peoples, Canada was one of the last to countries to adopt it. During this session, OKIB Chief Byron Louis will explore the history of UNDRIP, the impacts locally, provincially and nationally and what the adoption of the declaration means moving forward. A question period will follow and participants are invited to ask questions in the spirit of increasing their knowledge and better understanding the rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Click on event for ticket link.

Free

Learn + Connect: #LandBack Explained with Csetkwe Fortier

Land Back is an indigenous led movement about reclamation and revitalization. During this session, Csetkwe Fortier, a multi-gifted artist with her roots in the Syilx (Okanagan) and Secwepmec (Shuswap) Nations will discuss how Indigenous communities have been dispossessed from their ancestral lands and how #LandBack encompasses a wide range of concepts from restoration of land ownership to stewardship and protection. Holding the responsibility and respect of being stamia (two spirit), a sqwuy (mother to sons) and a Traditional Knowledge Keeper, Csetkwe brings a unique perspective to a complex movement and offers insight into better understanding our collective responsibilities.

Click on event for ticket link.

Free

Learn + Connect: Reading for Reconciliation

Learn + Connect: Reading for Reconciliation, invites participants to a monthly virtual book club series focused on the recently released Okanagan Women’s Voices Syilx and Settler Writing and Relations, 1870s to 1960s. Okanagan Women’s Voices collects Syilx and settler women’s writing and storytelling, much of it discovered in local archives and not previously published. It includes life writing, such as correspondence, journals, and memoirs, as well as translations of Syilx captikʷł (traditional stories), popular history, poetry, drama and fiction

Click on event for ticket link.

Free

Learn + Connect: Reading for Reconciliation

Learn + Connect: Reading for Reconciliation, invites participants to a monthly virtual book club series focused on the recently released Okanagan Women’s Voices Syilx and Settler Writing and Relations, 1870s to 1960s. Okanagan Women’s Voices collects Syilx and settler women’s writing and storytelling, much of it discovered in local archives and not previously published. It includes life writing, such as correspondence, journals, and memoirs, as well as translations of Syilx captikʷł (traditional stories), popular history, poetry, drama and fiction

Click on event for ticket link.

Free

National Day for Truth & Reconciliation at the MAV

Museum & Archives of Vernon 3009 32nd Avenue, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada

The Museum & Archives of Vernon (3009 32nd Avenue) will be open on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, September 30, to provide a public venue to "listen and learn" about Reconciliation, the 94 Calls to Action, and the resilience of the syilx/Okanagan Nation in the face of the Residential School system and other colonial actions. Activities during the day will be self-guided, and appropriate for all-ages; colouring sheets from Indigenous artist Hawlii Pichette and syilx-themed scavenger hunts will keep the youngest visitors busy, while adults can watch the OKIB production "I Am Okanagan" in the museum's Community Hall, or tune into the DWF's live radio production "A Day to Listen" near the Natural History section. Indigenous books and artistic creations will be available for purchase in the museum's gift shop, and visitors can also take this opportunity to submit their answer to museum's Indigenous Learning Tour question, for a chance to win a prize basket.

The MAV recognizes that it is located on the Traditional, Ancestral, and Unceded Territory of the syilx People of the Okanagan Nation. It also recognizes that National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is a day of rest for Indigenous Community Members, and a day of action for non-Indigenous individuals to learn the truth of our country's history and make efforts towards reconciliation. Donations collected through admission to the museum will be sent to the nk̓maplqs iʔ snm̓am̓áyaʔtn iʔ k̓l elementary school at Komasket Park to aid in their efforts towards a new building.