First Aboriginal-owned winery heralds progress

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Members of the Osoyoos Indian Band had reason to celebrate on Sept. 13, as the band's two latest business ventures officially opened their doors.

The Nk'Mip Desert and Heritage Interpretive Centre, and the Nk'Mip Cellars Winery, both owned and operated by the Osoyoos Indian Band Development Corporation, are just the latest additions to the corporation's ongoing work to develop a destination resort.

"They're all part of our resort, our destination resort, which encompasses also a golf course, which we're negotiating on right now, and hotel accommodations, which we're meeting with developers right now on. So there's other components to the destination resort area . . . and of course our RV park clubhouse is almost finished, for the RV park, which is just below these two. It's all part of resort-campground, RV park, winery, golf course, hotel, desert heritage centre, retail shops. And hopefully a casino one of these years," said Osoyoos Chief Clarence Louie.

You could say that the Osoyoos Indian Band started setting the foundation for the Nk'Mip Cellars Winery in 1968, when band members first started growing grapes on reserve. Now, almost 35 years later, there are more than 1,200 acres of vines planted on the band's lands. Vincor, the development corporation's partner in the new winery, own 1000 acres, while the band owns 240 acres. Another 15 to 20 acres around the winery have also been planted with grapes.

"It's actually one of the largest privately owned vineyards in Canada," Louie said.

"We've got millions of tons of grapes, and we only need a fraction of that to operate this estate winery. I imagine most of them are going to be coming from our own Inkameep vineyards. If they don't all come from Inkameep vineyards, then they would just come from other grapes grown on the Osoyoos Indian reserve," Louie said.

The decision to get into the winery business just naturally evolved from the band's years of involvement in growing grapes, Louie explained.

"I would imagine most grape growers would think and dream about having their own winery rather than just growing the product, growing the crop. Of actually manufacturing the product. I guess it's no different than most industries. You know you can, say, cut timber, but I imagine most people that cut timber would also rather go into the next step of manufacturing that timber. It's just going another step of value added."

While the winery has only recently been up and running, that doesn't mean visitors will have to wait to taste wine bearing the Nk'Mip label. Wines bottled in 2000 and 2001 at Vincor's commercial winery, which has operated on reserve since 1980, are currently being sold.

Louie expects most of the wine bottled at the Nk'Mip Cellars Winery will be sold at the winery itself, which is being marketed as a destination winery. And some will likely be sold to higher-end restaurants, and through wine specialty stores in B.C. and Alberta.

But that doesn't mean Louie isn't looking for a bigger, broader market for the wines being created on the reserve. A group of international wine writers was invited to the Nk'Mip Cellars' official opening, and Louie is optimistic about what that kind of exposure can do for the fledging winery.

"You talk about competing on the world stage when you're dealing in wine, so hopefully the international wine writers liked the experience, and will, through their praise, market our wine to the world."

The other venture that had it's official opening, Nk'Mip Desert and Heritage Interpretive Centre, is a project that has been the topic of discussion for about 10 years, said Louie, but serious work on it began about two years ago. The centre will serve two purposes-help preserve the unique desert ecosystem found on the reserve, which is home to a number of at-risk species of plants and animals, and preserve the culture and heritage of the Osoyoos people, and share it with visitors to the centre.

While the centre had its official pening in September, the facility had been open to the public for a couple of months prior to that and, so far, Louie said, the response has been good.

"There is a desert interpretive centre in Osoyoos. It's been there for a number of years off the reserve. But ours is a different experience in that it adds in the component of the Native heritage and culture of the area too. Plus, it's a completely different site and a completely different interpretation experience as far as the environmental side of it," he said.

"There's display boards, there's a tipi village, there's a Native village, there's Native culture and history, there's explanations on who the Osoyoos Indian Band is. One whole half of it is all on the Okanagan heritage and culture, and the other half of it deals with the stewardship of the red-listed, blue-listed species and habitat."

The interpretive centre is being housed in a temporary building, created by joining four modular trailers together, gutting them, then completely refurbishing them on the inside, Louie said. A permanent home for the centre is a few years and a few million dollars down the road, although the development corporation has already begun to try to raise funds for the building.

The decision to go with a temporary building for the centre, rather than just waiting until the funds were available for a permanent structure, was made for a couple of reasons, Louie explained. One was to get the information the centre provides out to the public now as opposed to later. The other was to test-run the centre, to make sure it warrants a multi-million dollar investment.

"I don't care what kind of business you run, there's always adjustments to be made. You know, you have to prove the numbers that you're contemplating as far as visitors, and prove that the business has the capabilities of financially surviving. And also, in order to build a multi-million dollar building, it's good to go through the initial stage of having a temporary strucure, just to prove all the work you're going to do and millions and millions of dollars of fundraising makes financial and business sense," Louie said.

"A lot of businesses, I mean golf courses. Some golf course clubhouses, they open up in trailers until they have the financial resources to build a permanent clubhouse. So it's the same business concept. We decided to go ahead with it because our language and culture and the stewardship of land is important. Sometimes in business, you operate out of what you can afford to operate out of at the time."

The Nk'Mip Desert and Interpretive Centre project is an important one, Louie explained, in that it not only allows the Osoyoos people to share information about their culture with the public, but it also provides a way of preserving the culture for present and future members of the band itself.

"I know a lot of First Nations have heritage and museum centres, and that type of work is really important. Whether you are Native or non-Native, your history and heritage is important, and you've got to put some time and effort and money into preserving your past, and educating people about your past. Even most Native people need to be educated about their past," he said.