Westbank museum takes its heritage week displays online
The Westbank Museum is looking to technology to remind people of simpler times during Heritage Week next week.
Daily postings on social media will be used to showcase the community’s rich history.
Like other museums and cultural heritage institutions, the Westbank Museum is keeping Heritage Week simple because of COVID-19, said Jaden Cormack, museum and visitor services coordinator.
Each day’s posting will have a different hashtag.
For example, for Trivia Tuesday Cormack created an online quiz for people to test their knowledge of Westside history.
Throwback Thursday will offer a glimpse of what Westbank used to look like with before and after photos spliced together so people compare locations such as the downtown orthodontist’s building now and what it used to look like in 1902.
Watch for What Was it Like Wednesday, when Cormack and the museum’s student will dress up in costume and post a skit online showing the simplicity of pioneer life using artifacts available at the museum. Plans include churning butter and an attempt to use the spinning wheel.
Shadowbox Saturday will feature a display case with artifacts from the Last family. The museum will post a photo of the display and a writeup about the family’s history.
“Whenever I think of winter, I think of the Last family because of the ski hill,” said Cormack, referring to the former Last Mountain Ski Resort.
“There has been so much talk about
Crystal Mountain/Bull Mountain Park opening and people are really excited about it, “said Cormack. “A lot of people don’t really know the history of it.”
The Last family display is part of an ongoing project for the museum that will focus on pioneer families.
People are welcome to drop by the museum and check out the project which also includes a shadowbox in honour of Sheila Paynter, local writer, farmer and family matriarch, who passed away at age 100 in 2020.
Cormack said the plan is to fill the museum’s entire back room with upwards of 20 shadowboxes including families who have had a street named after them as well as big players in industry, such as the Gorman family.
Each of the daily posts will be made to the Westbank Museum’s Facebook page, Instagram and website at westbankmuseum.com.
Projections says WFN land will be where more of the action is in the next 2 decades
Four times as many new homes will be built on Westbank First Nation lands compared to the City of West Kelowna in the next two decades, according to new projections.
And commercial development on WFN lands will be six times greater than in West Kelowna, according to forecasts.
The dramatic difference in likely development trends are outlined in a report going Wednesday to the directors of the Central Okanagan Regional District.
An estimated 4,556 homes will be built on the Westside between 2018 and 2038, the report projects, with 3,622 of them on WFN lands and 934 in West Kelowna.
Almost 90% of new homes on WFN lands will be contained within multifamily complexes such as apartments and condominiums. About two-thirds of new homes in West Kelowna will be in multi-family buildings.
By 2038, WFN will have added more than 94,000 square metres. of new commercial properties, while the City of West Kelowna commercial base will have increased by just 15,000 square metres, the report predicts.
New industrial premises are predicted to be roughly equal in the two jurisdictions, at approximately 46,000 square metres New industrial premises on WFN lands are estimated at almost 16,000 square metres compared to 12,000 square metres in West Kelowna.
The projections are based on recent building statistics, the amount of land available for development, and planning information supplied by both WFN and the City of West Kelowna to the regional district.
One consequence of the disparate development trends will likely be a reapportionment of costs related to the operation of the Westside sewage treatment plant, the report says.
Six years ago, about 74% of sewage flowing into the plant, located at the bottom of Goat's Peak Mountain with an outflow into Okanagan Lake, came from properties in West Kelowna.
That has already declined to 70% and will drop further in the years ahead due "to the lower development activity relative to Westbank First Nations", reads part of the report, prepared by regional engineering director David Komaike.
Peachland’s contribution to the sewage plant, carried via a pipe in the lake, account for less than 8% of total inflows and will remain about the same during the next 20 years, Komaike says.
The WFN has about 850 members and another 11,000 non-Indigenous people live in 4,700 homes on reserve lands. West Kelowna has a population of about 35,000.
There are 652 businesses on WFN lands, 552 of which are owned by nonband members.
Westbank First Nation building permit values last year topped $70 million, virtually all of which were issued for residential developments. Between 2005-2020, total building permits issued by the WFN were worth $678 million.
"Since achieving self-governing status in 2005, WFN has experienced incredible growth and success," the band's website states.