On July 20, Piikani Nation Lands Department and Piikani Consultation hosted an open house to promote and educate the preservation of Piikani lands and natural resources.

The event began with opening remarks from Piikani Lands Manager, Noreen Plain Eagle.

“We’ve been working in the last couple years with our department and just really creating an openness, so that we can find ways to take care of the land because that’s our stewardship and that’s what our mandate is,” says Noreen. “I hope that we will have some impact on the land because that’s our goal.”

With some of the projects being very similar, Piikani Lands Department and Piikani Consultation wanted to create a working relationship. They decided to showcase some of the projects that are being developed.

Piikani Lands Department Project Manager, Tawnya Plain Eagle, was tasked to work on the event.

“A lot of these projects are important and not a lot of people really know what we’re doing and what we’re working on. We just thought let’s have an open house and let’s come together hoping that this can be the first step in a good working relationship between the two departments,” says Plain Eagle.

Other organizations set up information stations during the open house to bring attention to their projects and organizations.

Waterton Lakes National Park’s Knowledge Weaver, Carleigh Grier-Stewart says, “Piikani Lands Department and Waterton Lakes National Park are working in collaboration on a project that focuses on building capacity for terrestrial species at risk conservation efforts and facilitating the continuation of cultural knowledge gathered from the land through youth and elder connections.” 

This is one of the many organizations that were providing information to the community of Piikani. 

Other organizations include the University of Lethbridge, Miistakis Institute, Oldman Watershed Council, Urban Systems, The Resilience Institute, Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, and Canadian Red Cross, Alberta - NWT.