After years of planning and constructing, a new Indigenous elders lodge is about to open close to the Rocky Mountain neighborhood of Grande Cache, Alta.
“It feels good to be here,” mentioned Winston Delorme, surveying progress on the 17,200-square-foot Kikinow Elders Lodge.
“When we first got here there used to be a road up here and it was just bush,” mentioned Delorme. Now it’s “almost a full, operating lodge here — for our people.”
The thought for the lodge, situated on the Victor Lake Co-operative, an Indigenous land holding on the north boundary of Grande Cache, 430 kilometres west of Edmonton, was first conceived in 2018 and building obtained underway in 2023.
Purposes are being accepted this month from Indigenous individuals within the space who need to dwell within the 14-bed facility.
Ending touches are being achieved within the lodge’s important consuming space. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
Victor Lake is among the six Indigenous co-operatives and enterprises within the Grande Cache space.
Delorme, a Victor Lake neighborhood chief, factors to the constructing’s half-moon design — with its teepee and fireside on the coronary heart of the lodge, smudge space, crafting room and neighborhood kitchen — as examples of what makes the $15-million greenback challenge distinctive.
Kikinow means “our home” in Cree and Delorme mentioned the aim is to create a non-institutional place in the neighborhood the place elders can age comfortably and safely.
“They get to come and go as they please. It’s not a jail for them,” he mentioned.
“If they want to go to town, they go to town, if they want to go home for the night — back to their old home — that’s up to them. That’s the biggest thing is they’re not kept.”
Victor Lake Co-operative member Hilda Hallock checks out the view from one of many rooms at Kikinow Elders Lodge, close to Grande Cache, Alta. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
Hilda Hallock, a 57-year-old Victor Lake neighborhood member, mentioned she will see herself ultimately residing on the lodge.
Searching the balcony of the house, Hallock sees the identical mountain views that she’s had all her life.
“I believe we are the land and the land is us,” she mentioned.
“This building will allow me to continue to live that life as I age, to maintain that connection and not be removed from it.”
Hallock described the lodge as “warm and welcoming.” Its home windows and partitions even embody etchings of her grandma’s flower beadwork sample, she mentioned.
Patterns, based mostly on domestically achieved beadwork, adorn the lodge’s entrance. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
It’s a spot that Hallock mentioned will free her of life’s “everyday stresses,” like guaranteeing her pipes don’t freeze and he or she has sufficient wooden chopped to final the winter.
Funding for the challenge is coming from the federal and provincial governments, the Municipal District of Greenview and different municipal regional companions with assist from Canada Mortgage and Housing Company, mentioned Shyam Menon, director of portfolio administration with The Evergreens Basis.
WATCH | Take a tour of the Kikinow Elders Lodge:
Tour a novel Indigenous elders lodge in northwestern Alberta
Purposes are being accepted for potential residents of the Kikinow Elders Lodge, opening this summer time close to Grande Cache, Alta. Get a really feel for Kikinow — Cree for ‘our home’ — and what it means to the neighborhood.
The not-for-profit administration firm will run the seniors residing facility.
“This project is a unique partnership between a housing management body and an Indigenous organization,” Menon mentioned, “bringing much needed culturally appropriate housing and care to the elders in the region.”
Workers with Scott Builders Inc. are persevering with work on infrastructure, landscaping and the inside of Kikinow Elders Lodge with residents anticipated to maneuver in later this summer time.
Shirley Delorme, president of Victor Lake Co-operative, in one of many lodge’s widespread areas. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)
Shirley Delorme, president of the Victor Lake Co-operative, mentioned opening up functions for residents makes it really feel actual.
Delorme mentioned she expects the lodge to be a particular place for the entire neighborhood.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of involvement with the younger generation,” she mentioned. “This is going to be a common place where they can come and learn from the elders.”
A photograph captured by a drone exhibits the structure of the Kikinow Elders Lodge. (Submitted: The Evergreens Basis)
