Over 60 people participated in the ParticiapACTIONcommunity Better Challenge Event. The event is a national annual physical challenge that rallies communities coast to coast to sit less and move more together.
The Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre in Houston hosted a two-week walking challenge where people were encouraged to walk and track their steps, along with a 1.5-hour walking group every Tuesday morning.
The challenge ended with a celebration event at Irrigation Lake on June 13. There were games, singing and drumming, Tia chi, and rowing in sync in the beautiful Nyibegh war canoe. Nyibegh means stability in Wet’suwet’en. Approximately 14 people fit in the war canoe.
“We want to be stable in our lives and on the water. How we are living it shows while we are on the water. You can do the same thing we are doing on the canoe in your life. You can live a beautiful stable life with effort, self-control, by having fun, listening to your parents, and elders,” said Mel Basil, Alcohol and Drug counsellor in the Dze L Kant Friendship Centre in Smithers while steering the war canoe.
Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre main office in Smithers has owned the war canoe since 2005. The main office often collabroates with the Houston office and brings the war canoe down for events. The new West Coast Art on the boat is from Smogelgem, a Lihkts’amisyu Hereditary Chief. It is of a lake monster design on the bow and a pod of killer whales elders and youth at the stern.
