Cultural coordinator Anona Kampe has assembled a poster commemorating vets past and present of the Penticton Indian Band. She hopes to expand the project to the Okanagan Nation next year.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED
November 03, 2017 - 6:30 PM
PENTICTON - As Remembrance Day approaches, a member of the Penticton Indian Band has found increasing interest in her project to honour Okanagan Nations members who have served, past and present, in Canada’s military.
Anona Kampe is the cultural coordinator for Okanagan Skaha School District, tasked with the responsibility of bringing indigenous culture into local schools and classrooms.
Kampe says she put a call out recently on the Penticton Indian Band Facebook page and in the band’s weekly newsletter for pictures of people who served in the military, including those who are still serving.
"The response was positive and the pictures came rolling in,” Kampe says.
Kampe created a poster with the submissions. After it was complete she sent it to aboriginal support workers in the schools to be utilized in displays for Remembrance Day.
Some of those making submissions didn’t know the military rank of the serving family member so in some cases only the name of the person is used. Kampe put the call out to members of the Penticton band and has since discovered there is interest throughout the Okanagan Nation in the project.
“We have many more veterans and military personnel in our Nation and not everyone has pictures or knows where to find them. It’s my hope this will grow and next year we will have more images to share and honour,” she says.
Kampe says she brings native culture to her students through presentations involving traditional storytelling, regalia presentation, traditional harvesting, talking circles and smudge ceremonies.
“If I receive a request for things I’m not well versed in, I rely on various people from throughout the Okanagan Nation to come in and do presentations or performances. I’m always looking for indigenous perspectives and how to include those within our schools,” she says.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED
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