Welcome, First Nations elders from across B.C. to Prince George and the traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh on which it sits.
We hope you have enjoyed the city and the hospitality of its residents during your stay.
You've probably noticed a few things about Prince George that we're pretty proud of.
The statue of Bridget Moran downtown honours a brave social worker who fought for government recognition of area First Nations, their history and the welfare of their people, especially the young.
Our museum, Exploration Place, currently has a fantastic exhibit called Cultural Expressions of the Lheidli T'enneh that wonderfully showcases your hosts for this year's gathering.
A short walk from Exploration Place, you'll find the Lheidli T'enneh cemetery at Fort George Park. The entire community is proud of it, even though it marks a painful and disgraceful episode in Prince George's history. As the entrance into the cemetery points out, the original residents of this area were forcefully removed to Shelley and their burial grounds were disturbed. The cemetery doesn't right that wrong but it does acknowledge a wrong was committed and telling the story of what happened is important for all residents and visitors to know.
It's the sign of a maturing city, soon to celebrate its centennial, that we acknowledge great moments from our past, such as being the first place where Terry Fox ran a marathon, and the history of our downtown, through the signs placed throughout the city core by the Prince George Heritage Commission, but also to address the errors of those who came before us.
Our past is a colourful one.
There was once a wooden ski jump off of Connaught Hill, with brave jumpers landing where the Prince George Public Library sits now. When the municipal government decided it needed its own city hall, it moved into a building that once housed a brothel.
Our future is bright.
The Lheidli T'enneh is the host First Nation for the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, the first aboriginal community in Canadian history to jointly host a Canada Games with the host city. Elders, we hope you come back to see us in February 2015 as we welcome the best young athletes (and future Olympians) in the nation.
We also know we still have some work to do in the future to address the past. We have a mural in Prince George Community Foundation Park, just a few short steps from that great statue of Terry Fox, that tells a blatant, racist lie about this area's history. It glorifies white settlers and marginalizes First Nations. One part of the mural, depicting a white missionary teaching a rapt audience of aboriginal people, is particularly offensive in light of what happened in residential schools.
The mural was erected in 1967, before the horrors of residential schools were fully revealed, before the cultural awareness of today and before history proved Bridget Moran right for refusing to back down in her battle with the provincial government of the day.
For both its artistic and historical value, the mural belongs in a museum now, where it can be viewed in a proper context, not in a park in the centre of the community where it continues to imply that Prince George remains the same community it was in 1967. Some may call this historical revisionism but history is rewritten all the time, as historians learn more and communities evolve. If history was fixed in place, there would be no need for more history books and more study of our past.
As elders, you are part of living history, for your home nations and for all of B.C. Your knowledge and wisdom is invaluable to all. It's been a pleasure to have you with us this week in Prince George.
