Chief Jason Louie will be joined by Lower Kootenay Band members and others at 10 a.m. Nov. 23 in a walk to recognize National Addictions Awareness Week.
Participants will be delivering a handmade sturgeon nose, or Kootenay, canoe that will be presented to the Creston Valley Hospital after carrying it from the Lower Kootenay administration centre.
“Like the hospital, the canoe represents life,” said Louie.
The canoe was made during a youth cultural boot camp in July, a project led by him and two other instructors.
“We were operating on memory, from what we had seen as children, and from viewing some film footage,” he said. “We asked the boot camp participants what to do with the canoe and they wanted to donate it to an organization that would appreciate it.
“National Addictions Awareness Week is an annual event and it seemed like a good fit to do this as part of the activities from November 19-24.”
Louie said the lengthy hike from Lower Kootenay to town is appropriate.
“The hike is symbolic. Those who battle addictions to so on a daily basis and the battle can seem endless. And the weather should be cold, so we don’t feel very comfortable. The least we can do is get an understanding of their pain for at least a couple of hours.”
Presenting the canoe to the hospital is meant as a good will gesture to help improve relations between the medical community and Lower Kootenay Band members.
“The canoe is a symbol who we are as a valley — there’s no other place in the world that has anything similar,” he said.
The walk will begin at 10 a.m., with participants taking turns carrying the canoe. Anyone is welcome to join in.