Watchful eyes may notice some slight changes around the Prince George Airport (YXS) on their next visit.
As the first phase of YXS’ new Indigenous Heritage Project, the Lheidli T’enneh flag is now being flown outside of the departure wing of the airport and a brief, four-panel history of the local First Nation can be found across from the check-in desks in the departures wing.
“I have always said, right from the very beginning, take five minutes to learn about your local First Nations,” Lheidli T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan said after the flag raising. “I don’t know how many years Prince George didn’t even know Lheidli was here.”
Now, one of the first things people arriving in Prince George will see is the Lheidli T’enneh, which she said is “pretty exciting.”
“It is really important, especially for our elders because they got to work on and choose the panels. It is recognition,” she said. “Nobody got a handbook on [reconciliation], nobody knows how it is going to work, but we are slowly making it work together.”
“We are really pleased with the progress we’ve made to date and the work we have been able to do together,” the President and CEO of YXS said. “We are really looking forward to seeing where it can go, there is a lot of opportunity here at the airport to educate travelers.”
“I believe movements like this and the collaborative relationship we are building is a model for other [regional] airports to use,” Duke said – acknowledging Vancouver as a model for larger airports.
Colin Carson, the CEO of Tourism Prince George, was also in attendance.
“This is an important step in reconciliation for the airport to take,” he said. “We were really excited to be a part of this because the airport is so important for visitors and is such an important part of what we do that having this as a location that is welcoming and able to tell some of that story of the Lheidli T’enneh is really important.”
Duke said the same panels are printed in the library, the airport asked permission to copy and hang them in the terminal.
“Once they were up we saw people stopping, reading and learning. That’s what we want to do, take the opportunity to educate the traveling community on the Lheidli T’enneh,” he said.
The flag raising was not supposed to happen until the spring, but Duke said the tame winter allowed for the flagpole to be installed in a season it normally would not.
Picnic tables and a quiet space to sit around the flags will be installed in the spring.
He also mentioned there are a lot of creative ideas on what can be done next but the project is “evolving,” with no set plans for future phases.
“We are taking our que from the creative minds that are putting their effort into this, and I do believe it is going to be an exciting time over the next little while.”
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