The sun shone on 23 canoes and their paddlers as they left Mara Lake Park Saturday morning, the first day of paddling on the 2013 Pulling Together Canoe Journey.
Following a blessing on the shoreline, and radio safety checks once on the water, the paddlers were off towards their day’s destination of Old Town Bay, about 15 kilometres away.
Canoes came from near and far, with five from the local bands: Adams Lake, Neskonlith, Splats’in, Little Shuswap and Kamloops.
In its first year in 2001, when the paddlers travelled from Yale to Gibson on the Fraser River, the organizing agency was the RCMP, with the realization it would benefit the police in their contact with First Nations, and vice versa. Over the years the journey has expanded its reach, and now includes Fisheries and Oceans, the navy, conservation, municipalities and more.
“It’s a cultural exchange,” says Jolene Andrews, president of the Pulling Together Canoe Society. “It’s an opportunity to sit outside the institutions and be in a community together. We get outside our roles and learn a lot.”
In the lead canoe, invited by the Splats’in, were Shuswap MLA Greg Kyllo and Salmon Arm Mayor Nancy Cooper.
The variety of canoes, paddlers, flags and colours made for a beautiful sight as the sun glittered off the water. Only as the flotilla neared the Cinnemousun Narrows did the wind and waves begin to pick up. Once beyond the Bruhn Bridge, canoes navigated a brisk chop, but it was short-lived as Old Town Bay was just around the next point of land.
At their destination for the day, Chief Wayne Christian welcomed the canoes onto the traditional Splats’in territory. He explained that this was the main camp for his people until the railway and small-pox forced them to relocate to Enderby.
About 500 people, both paddlers and support personnel, are staying at the journey’s camps along the way.
This year’s journey will end on Friday, when the canoes will travel the 38 kilometres from Pritchard to Kamloops that day to be part of the Grand Entry at the Kamloops Pow Wow.
