The Village of Burns Lake held their regular council meeting on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.
During the meeting, Lake Babine Nation Capital Asset Officer Rick Dobbs made a proposal to add murals to the new supportive housing complex, known as Dzee Inzu Yikh, the former Burns Lake Motor Inn.
The proposed locations for the murals are in several locations on and around the complex including the concrete retaining wall, the east stairwell exterior wall and the south common area building exterior wall. Architect Mark Sin from David Naire and Associates Ltd. showed council the illustrations.
“We’re going to have the raven in this mural because it represents strength and knowledge,” said Dobbs.
“The idea of the salmon swimming up the river. So, we’ve got the eggs, we got the fingerlings, and then we’ve got the salmon. We’re thinking about changing it where we’re going to show a skeleton of a fish at the end of its life cycle,” said Dobbs
“We’ve got the four clans. We’ve got the caribou, the beaver, the bear and the frog. We got the Saskatoon berry which is a native berry to the First Nations,” said Dobbs.
“We’re going to use river rock for the medicine wheel to show the different concepts of it,” Dobbs said.
Some of the murals are up to be approximately 60 feet long.
“We wanted something positive in the back because it’s a healing area and you want something that’s relaxing. We want to make it as calming and inviting as possible,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs said that Raven-Tacuara [a collective group of Indigenous artists] will be creating these murals.
“The the artists we hired are the same artists that did other murals in Smithers, Terrace and Houston. We gave them a concept of what we wanted and this is what they came back along with the colours,” said Dobbs.
Mayor Henry Wiebe asked about the significance in the colors choosen for the murals and Dobbs replied there was too much red in the background.
“We wanted to tone it down. So we started working with the greens,” said Dobbs.
“The greens are, I think, viewed as a bit more relaxing,” said Councillor Kristy Bjarnason.
Dobbs further emphasized that artists have a mind of their own on choosing this specific green colour.
“When we were working with artists, you gotta let them kind of run with what your ideas are. You know, you can’t really pick everything you want,” said Dobbs.
The mural project will start in Spring of 2024.
“It’s going to be done in the spring. It all depends on the painting of the building to be ready for the murals,” Dobbs said.
The roof of the supporting complex is going to be finished by next week and painting [of building] is going to start on Thursday.
“The doors are going to be red colour that we discussed in the very beginning. The previous illustration for the building was red and now its going to be off white,” said Dobbs.
“With the red on the common building, we want to change it to the off white to match the rest of the building,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs extended an invitation to council to visit the site.
“If anybody from council here would like to come down for a visit and a tour, I’d be more than happy to give you one. I’ll make some arrangements next week,” Dobbs said.
Council decided it will be helpful to see a complete illustration of the building with the murals in place before making a final decision for the building permit amendment.
“If we can see a completed picture like these, would be great. Doesn’t have to be a whole thing like this, but just so we are able to see the red doors with the white building with the new artwork,” said Mayor Henry Wiebe.
“That’s definitely our intention, we can now add onto the 3d model and present the same views that we did in the development concept,” said Sin.
“We need the new drawings by Oct. 5 to get it onto the agenda and for council to review for a next council meeting on Oct. 10, said Chief Administrative Officer Sheryl Worthing.
Dobbs concluded by saying, “It’s going to look like a very beautiful building.”
Another item on the village agenda was, council has decided to financially support a high school student to attend the Youth Parliament which takes place on Dec. 27 to 31. The village will provide $1000 to a local student.
“I think it’s important that you become involved in politics locally and beyond to learn about the process,” said Councillor Bjarnason.
The $1000 will be used for registration and travel costs, plus the village will purchase the flight.
