Nemiah Valley Lodge Featured in Explore Magazine
In The Press
Jennifer Hubert’s Article was published in Explore Magazine September 2022. The article features the history of Xeni Title Lands, Personal refelections from Jennifer’s time at the Lodge and with the Xeni Gwet’in People.
“Just when I’m about to arrive in what is surely the most remote pocket of British Columbia I’ve ever visited, we stumble upon a well equipped, wilderness cabin—complete with a guestbook, with entries from the preceding weeks scribbled in by folks from Germany, Poland and Puerto Rico.”
A New Indigenous-Owned Lodge in BC Is Blazing Its Own Tourism Path
by Jennifer Hubbert, September 30, 2022
The Wilderness Cabin at Muir Lake.
On a gentle slope that meets a milky blue lake, the aroma of silver sage, bear root, juniper and cedar are carried by the wind into a sunbeam.
I’m standing still with eyes closed as Xeni Gwet’in elder Patrick Lulua traces my silhouette with a fan of eagle feathers that he holds in one hand. His other hand clutches an abalone shell cradling the smoldering blend of finely-ground sacred plants. He wafts a whisp of smoke that trails from the shell over me, cleansing and balancing my energies in a tradition known as smudging.
The smudging is a send-off after having shared lunch with Patrick on the grounds of the Xeni Gwet’in’s traditional village, situated deep in Tŝilhqot’in (Chilcotin) territory on the shores of Chilko Lake in British Columbia. This is where the Xeni would winter and a nearby reconstruction of a pit house offers a glimpse into life before the arrival of European settlers.
Smudging and long conversations with Indigenous elders are experiences you can get as a guest of the recently opened Nemiah Valley Lodge—the most recent chapter of the Xeni Gwet’in story of reclamation and self-determination. That the lodge is wholly Indigenous-owned and operated is simple enough for most people to understand, but complex to unpack.
