FIND LOCAL HERITAGE WHEREVER YOU ARE
How to celebrate Heritage Week
I find “heritage” when I read the interpretive signs in our parks highlighting the stories, history and language of the first syilx/Okanagan peoples.
I find “heritage” when I stroll down Abbott Street and see beautiful homes dating from Kelowna’s infancy.
I find “heritage” when I drive by Kelowna’s old brick firehall and the former Courier building on Water Street.
I find “heritage” when I stand quietly before our war monuments in City Park.
Where do you find heritage? That is the theme across British Columbia for this year’s Heritage Week celebrations. It means that heritage, our history, our cultural inheritance, the legacy left to us by others, is all around us. Heritage Week gives us an opportunity to look around and re-appreciate that legacy.
For 20 years the Central Okanagan Heritage Society (COHS) has been helping coordinate the events of Heritage Week in the Central Okanagan; part of the provincial and national events celebrating Heritage Week across Canada each year.
COHS chairs the local planning committee and works with many community groups that host Heritage Week events. The committee includes organizations throughout the Central Okanagan: The Okanagan Historical Society (Kelowna Branch), Kelowna Museums, Friends of Fintry Provincial Park Society, Westbank Museum, Sncewips Museum, Kelowna Tree Protectors, Lake Country Museum, Kelowna & District Genealogical Society (KDGS) Rutland Residents Association, Kelowna South-Central Association of Neighbourhoods (KSAN), Okanagan Regional Library, Friends and Residents of the Abbott Street Heritage Conservation Society (FRAHCAS) and the Central Okanagan Heritage Society.
Kelowna businesses like The Trophy Den, The View Winery, The Daily Courier and Tim Hortons also pitch in. The City of Kelowna and Central Okanagan Foundation also play a big part each year. Many thanks to everyone involved.
This year, some events will be in-person and safe, but many will be virtual. This may allow even more people than usual to take part!
MONDAY, FEB. 15
Artifact/Artifiction: A Family Day special event, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at Kelowna Museums. Unplug and play on Family Day. Be the first to challenge our newest feature exhibition. Museum collections hold objects of wonder, but is it fact or fiction? Register your bubble at kelownamuseums.ca/events and step right in.
West Kelowna Museum: Special shadow box exhibits of pioneer families will be revealed once a day for a week. They will then be mounted on the walls of the museum. There will also be a skit that will be filmed and presented online about a day in the life of a pioneer.
Every day during the week there will be an “identify the artifact” contest. You can go to the museum as well and check out the mock pioneer house with costumes to try on. On the web: westkelownacity.ca.
Lake Country Museum and Archives: A live tour of the museum at 1 p.m. Come behind the scenes and see how the museum operates. Learn about the history of Lake Country. The half-hour live presentation will be on the Lake Country Museum Facebook page, or participate in person. Limited space is available due to COVID-19 restrictions. Call to register at 250-766-0111. For more information visit LakeCountryMuseum.com.
TUESDAY, FEB. 16
Heritage Awards Presentations via Zoom at 7 p.m. Registration required; email cohs@telus.net.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17
Storytelling: How Turtle Set the Animals Free, 7-8 p.m. on Zoom. Learn more about syilx storytelling culture. Register at kelownamuseums.ca/events.
THURSDAY, FEB. 18
Genealogist, Claire Smith-Burns will give a talk on Finding Your Family in the Canadian Census Records through the Okanagan Regional Library, 1:30-3 p.m. Census records are like time-travelling to have a peek at a day in the life of your ancestral families. Learn where to find these fabulous records, tricks for locating elusive family and how to wring out all the information these records hold on your ancestors.
Register by finding the event in the ORL’s event’s calendar (orl.evanced.inof/signup/Calendar), then click on the event to bring up the registration form; a Zoom invite will then be sent to you.
Date Night at the Museum, 5-8 p.m. Woo that special someone with a date at the museum. Fun challenges and activities will be sure to spark some romance.
FRIDAY, FEB. 19 Artifact/Artifiction: Opening Ceremony and Trivia Night through the Kelowna Museums. Celebrate the latest feature exhibition and join in virtually, at 4 p.m. Enjoy a VIP mini tour with Curatorial Manager Amanda Snyder. Then roll up your sleeves for some Kelowna trivia. Can you tell Artifacts from Artifictions?
SATURDAY, FEB. 20
Walking tour of the Abbott Street. More information on Facebook at HeritageWeekOkanagan or OKHeritage Society.com
SUNDAY, FEB. 21
A different walking tour of the Abbott Street area. More information on Facebook at HeritageWeekOkanagan or OKHeritageSociety.com.
ALL WEEK
Be sure to take in the displays of Central Okanagan “Heritage Personalities” at the downtown Kelowna Library during Heritage Week!
Some Heritage Week 2021 events are ongoing:
The Canadian Italian Club invites you to look at its first two volumes of “Le prime families Italian di Kelowna” (The first Italian Families of Kelowna). Each volume features stories and photographs of 30 early families who are part of Kelowna’s history. Go to kelownaitalianclub.com and follow the links. Also watch for the launch of the recorded oral history project of Central Okanagan pioneer Italian families.
Virtual tour of the Mission of the Immaculate Conception (aka Father Pandosy Mission) and Benvoulin Heritage Church are available on You Tube. Friends of Fintry has four very interesting videos on its website, Fintry.ca
See all of the Heritage Week events on Facebook at HeritageWeekOkanagan or OKHeritagesociety.com.
“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today and we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration, our touchstone, our reference point, our identity.”
— UNESCO
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society. Additional information would be welcome at P.O. Box 22105, Capri P.O., Kelowna, B.C., V1Y 9N9.