'It's a symbol of our strength': Heiltsuk open first Big House in 120 years

Chief Coun. Marilyn Slett of the HeiltsukNation says it's hard to put into words the excitement and emotionshe feels at Sunday's opening of the first ceremonial Big House inthe territory in modern history.

The last Big House in the First Nation's territory along the B.C.coast was destroyed 120 years ago and the community has beenplanning and fundraising to build a new one for decades.

The opening means the community now has an appropriate space forspiritual and ceremonial events like potlatches and the naming ofbabies, which had previously been held in a community centre, shesaid.

"It feels great, it feels surreal, it feels sometimes like adream," Slett said in an interview.

5 days of celebration

The community kicked off five days of celebration in Bella Bellaon Sunday and expects as many as 2,000 guests to join them from asfar away as New Zealand.

Gvakva'aus Hailzaqv, or House of the Heiltsuk, took 18 months tobuild and is constructed entirely of red and yellow cedar from theterritory, including logs more than a metre wide, weighing eight tonnes, that werelocally sourced and milled.

Indigenous artists have been working for 10 years to design,carve and paint four house posts that tell the origin story of theHeiltsuk people.

What happened to the last Big House?

William Housty, cultural adviser on the project, said the openingis an important step toward cultural revitalization, following ahistory of oppression.

"Missionaries claimed that the (last) Big House was blown downin a storm. But none of our people ever believed that because theychose that area to live in because it was so well sheltered from thestorms," he said.

The Heiltsuk believe the missionaries knocked down the last BigHouse in their efforts to assimilate members of the First Nation, hesaid.

It would be part of a series of efforts to erase Indigenousculture that also includes a federal ban on potlatches between 1880and 1951.

Guiding builders on the construction of the Big House presentedsome challenges, considering no one was around 120 years ago to seethe last Big House for themselves. But Housty said the First Nationhas maintained a strong oral tradition that tracks the role of the Big House, supplemented by written accounts by fur traders, missionaries and others.

In one account, he said, the Big House is described as a livingspace. The rafters and house posts serve as the ribs and backbone ofthe structure, the front of the Big House is its face.

"It had the same sort of qualities we do as human beings," hesaid.

The new building also breaks from the historic Big House in someways, including measures to meet provincial building codes. It hasabout triple the capacity, with seating for up to 800 people andspace for 1,000 if people stand.

"There's a sense of pride knowing the dreams of so manyancestors are now being lived by our generation. People like my lategrandfather who always talked about the Big House and how importantit was aren't here anymore," Housty said. "Now we're living theirdreams."

$7 million budget

The total budget for the project was about $7 million and wasbacked by funding from other levels of government, including $2.5million from the federal government. But members have alsocontributed, collecting donations at just about every potlatch andfeast over the decades since the project was first imagined, Slettsaid.

"Going forward it's a symbol of our strength and our resilienceas people. I know it's just going to make us stronger," Slett said.