Charlotte Stringam, right, manager of Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, invited to the stage Brenda Baptiste, who first hired Stringam as an interpreter and who played a major role in launching the centre. (Richard McGuire photo)
As Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre looked back at its past on Friday, it also looked ahead with the announcement of a $5 million renewal project.
Past and future came together at ceremonies to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the building that’s now a repository and showcase of Okanagan First Nations culture.
The renewal strategy was presented Friday evening to potential donors and partners by Mel Woolley, who was involved with launching the current building in 2006. Woolley will be project manager for the renewal.
The plans call for a new gallery and function room of more than 3,000 square feet, a new 300 sq. ft. archive room, a new administration area of 1,100 sq. ft. and other facilities, including a new commercial kitchen, new outdoor court and new exterior exhibit area.
The outdoor performance area could be glassed in with retractable panels that can open up to the sky, said Charlotte Stringam, manager of Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.
“We’ve been planning it for some time,” said Stringam. “We’ve been working on it quite a bit in 2016, trying to get it this far along. I think it’s going to be positive.”
The project results from recognition that after 10 years in the current building, there is need for renewal to provide new and different visitor experiences.
The number of visitors has steadily declined from around 20,000 in 2007 to just over 10,000 visitors in 2015.
With the renewal project, the number of visitors is projected to rise from a low of around 7,500 in 2017 to more than 23,300 in 2022.
“For Nk’Mip Desert and Cultural Centre to maintain vibrancy and relevancy, it must meet not only Osoyoos Indian Band demands,” says a PowerPoint presentation about the project. “(It must meet) visitor needs, for cultural curiosity, for entertainment and as a place to gather.”
The construction budget for the renewal is $3.3 million and the exhibit budget is $1.7 million, bringing the total renewal budget to just over $5 million.
The goal, said Stringam, is to start work in 2017 and complete it in 2018.
Stringam said much of the funding will come from grants, but there will also be ongoing annual fundraising events well after the project is completed, normally around the Labour Day weekend.
Friday’s event raised more than $20,000 for the project, she said.
“A big portion will be grants,” said Stringam. “We are working on federal funding and other private funding. That’s why we had this first donors’ dinner, celebrating our 10th anniversary. It was the kickoff of our first fundraising.”
The earlier daytime event celebrated the successful establishment of the present centre, which had been housed in trailers for several years prior to construction.
Stringam brought up to the stage Brenda Baptiste who had first hired her as an interpreter in 2003, a few years before she became manager.
She recalled her difficult first interview with Baptiste.
“I was so nervous,” said Stringam. “I don’t know why… I started crying, so that was very embarrassing to me. Here a professional goes into an interview and she begins to cry. I came out of the interview and I thought, ‘I’m not going to get hired for that job, because I just made an idiot of myself.’”
She was wrong though. She got the job that started a career that has immersed her in the culture and history of the Osoyoos Indian Band and its successes and failures.
“Brenda was one of my best trainers that I ever had and this was the most special project I ever worked on,” she said.
Baptiste recalled that after developing the trails and pit houses at the centre, there was suddenly the realization that rattlesnakes and tourists might not mix well.
“We’ve all lived and played around here,” said Baptiste. “It never actually occurred to us that we were sending our visitors out to an area that has the most dense population of rattlesnakes.”
In the end, the team decided the answer was to embrace the rattlesnakes. They hired a herpetologist, did research, worked with a university, and ultimately began the rattlesnake program.
Stringam recounted an early summer working with the snakes.
“There were three of us that were interpreters that summer,” she said. “We played the Ghostbusters song and we were the rattlesnake busters. At the time, we did really dangerous things with those rattlesnakes.”
This included holding snakes down with a fork object to put pit tags in them – something that would never be done now.
“I can’t believe we did anything so dangerous,” said Stringam. “I would throw rattlesnakes in a bucket in my car and I would drive along singing the Ghostbusters song, singing the rattlesnake busters.”
Chief Clarence Louie spoke next. He acknowledged that a cultural centre or museum is never a moneymaker, but said it plays an important role in promoting cultural and heritage.
“No entrepreneur goes and opens up a cultural centre or a museum,” said Louie, adding that even those in major cities don’t make money.
“It’s a leadership responsibility,” he said. “Anytime you want to preserve your past and your history, it’s not something entrepreneurs do. It’s something that government does, and in this case the government is the Osoyoos Indian Band chief and council.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band delivered an address at the opening of ceremonies to mark the 10th anniversary of Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre on Friday. Louie said a cultural centre is never a money maker, but it’s important for the preservation and promotion of the culture and heritage of the Okanagan First Nations people. (Richard McGuire photo)
The ceremonies at Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre opened Friday with an Okanagan welcome song accompanied by drum. (Richard McGuire photo)
Caine Kruger put a lot of energy into a dance at the ceremony to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre. He was dressed in the colourful regalia that would be worn at a pow wow. (Richard McGuire photo)
