Celebrating the culture of Osoyoos in the Okanagan

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This article was published 28/09/2019 (2225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Taylor Baptiste draws the bow back and, bam, shoots the arrow straight into the heart of the bear cub.

Don’t fret, this isn’t a real, live bear cub, but a plastic bruin-shaped target.

It’s been set out with a similarly fake badger for our archery session on the sage flats of Canada’s only desert, in the southern tip of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley surrounding the town of Osoyoos.

Baptiste, a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band and a champion archer, is leading a group of travel writers on a cultural tour to promote the band’s burgeoning tourism.

There’s more to Indigenous tourism than just traditionally costumed dancers at a powwow or hearing stories from an elder.

There’s storytelling, hiking traditional lands, swimming in Canada’s warmest lake (Osoyoos Lake) and modern conveniences such as staying at a luxury Indigenous-inspired resort, eating gourmet cuisine, drinking vintages made by North America’s only Indigenous winemaker and playing at golf courses on Indigenous land.

All this is set in the eye-candy of the South Okanagan, where tourists have been flocking for decades for warm weather, lakes, mountain scenery, food and wine.

Before we get to all that, it should be noted Baptiste is a champion archer who won a bronze medal at the North American Indigenous Games and a silver medal at the Indigenous Canada Games.

She’s also the tour guide, a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band Youth Council and the Indigenous education adviser at Southern Okanagan Secondary School.

And to brag a bit, I won the media archery competition, sticking an arrow in the target, although not as close to the bull’s-eye as Baptiste.

As a prize, I received a $100 gift certificate to spend at the gift shop of the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.

My wife spent it for me, choosing a huge wood salad bowl, some desert-scented candles and tea towels decorated with Indigenous art.

The centre is also where the tour started with interpreter Dyawen Louis drumming and singing the Syilx (Okanagan) national anthem and creation story.

The centre is also where you can check out rattlesnakes (in an aquarium), a replica teepee and pit house and start a hike through the desert.

Baptiste continued the tour to Okanagan Falls, where salmon has been traditionally fished for a millennium and the shore of Osoyoos Lake for lunch prepared by chef Murray McDonald.

McDonald, formerly the chef at the famous Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, is now at the helm of The Bear, The Fish, the Root and The Berry, named after the four Syilx food chiefs.

The Indigenous-inspired restaurant is in Spirit Ridge Resort, the hotel that’s part of the Unbound Collection by Hyatt on Osoyoos Indian Band land.

It’s where for dinner we’ll devour bison rib-eye steak paired with 2016 Merriym Red Meritage from neighbouring Nk’Mip Cellars.

Nk’Mip is North America’s first Indigenous-owned winery and Justin Hall is the first Indigenous winemaker on the continent.

“Quite the accomplishment for a kid who grew up on the rez,” Hall said with a laugh in reference to him growing up on the Osoyoos Indian Band First Nation.

“I was 24 and need a job and knew nothing of wine, but I pestered Randy Picton (now head winemaker at Nk’Mip) to give me one. He finally did and I started as a cellar hand and along the way the band sent me to Lincoln University (in New Zealand) to become a winemaker.”

McDonald himself has Indigenous heritage — Labrador Innu (Inuit) on his mother’s side and Métis on his dad’s.

“The best way to learn about a culture is through food,” said McDonald in a distinctive Newfoundland accent.

“Indigenous cuisine is the original farm-to-table, the original Paleo diet, the original hunt-fish-and-gather and it’s full of superfoods.”

Check out Fall.OIB.ca.

steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca