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Within the walls of the Native Friendship Centre, there is a group of women sitting together making beautiful things.
Vi Findlay, 83, is doing some bead work as part of a Christmas ornament she is making that will be donated to someone who could use a little culture and a lot of love from their Kookum (grandmother).
Mrs. Findlay has been part of the Kookums’ Konnection since 2012 that sees a group of women elders come together to share their knowledge and teachings with youth in the community.
Kookum means grandmother and the role of these volunteers falls into a traditional grandmother’s role where she will play with the little ones (in the early childhood education department), guide in tradition the young ones who need grounding (in the youth groups), assist with food security (at the food bank) because there’s nothing worse than an empty belly and then there’s even some craft creating of items that are gifted to those in need. It’s all part of the volunteering effort to lift up the community in need of assistance, teachings and guidance.
“I was brought up by my grandparents and my grandfather was white so we had to move out of reserve,“ Mrs. Findlay said. “I stayed with my grandparents until I was nine and after that I never learned any more about my culture – nothing – until I moved here to BC from Alberta. I moved here in 1955 and that’s when I got married here, had children here – four boys and two girls – and I was working for the forestry department for 30 years. I was handling the seedlings. The kids all graduated and they all grew up on skates – the boys were all hockey players and the girls were figure skaters. I wouldn’t get out of my work clothes until midnight most days because I was so busy with them.”
Mrs. Findlay had lost her culture.
“So when the kids grew up that’s when I decided to volunteer,” she said.
During the busiest times, Mrs. Findlay would volunteer five days a week at the food bank at the Native Friendship Centre. Now she’s there every Monday.
“Reconnect Youth Village and we make tie blankets with the youth,” she said. “There might be three or four of us who come down and we help quite a bit with everything.”
It would never occur to Mrs. Findlay to ever stay home.
“I am so used to working that I just want to keep busy and help out,” she added. “I am a jack of all trades so whenever they need me here I come down. I like to do crafts and I like to learn new things. The most important thing is that I like people and I like to help out. At my age you don’t want to sit at home and do nothing – you get old fast doing that.”
