Billie Bouchie Day receives $10,000 Provincial Grant - May 25/26

Courtesy of the Friends of Bouchie/Milburn Society:

The Friends of Bouchie-Milburn Society / FoBM is excited to announce that they have successfully secured a $10,000.00 grant from the Province of British Columbia to support the 2nd Annual Billie Bouchie Day. The grant received is under the “Community Resilience Through Arts and Culture Fund”. It was applied for by the Friends of Bouchie-Milburn Society in partnership with the Friends of the Quesnel and District Museum and Archives and the North Cariboo Metis Association.

Bille Bouchie Day is a 1 ½ day event to be held in Bouchie Lake on May 25/26th. This weekend has particular significance as on May 27, 2018, it will be 116 years since Lizette Allard Boucher and William Boucher (“Billie Bouchie”) pre-empted 320 acres in the area thereby becoming Bouchie Lake’s first permanent residents. During that time, travel into the area was by way of the Collins-Overland Telegraph Trail. Billie Bouchie was one of the sons of Jean Baptiste Boucher, a well-known French-Cree (Metis) interpreter who worked for the North West Company. Billie was a courier travelling between Fort Alexandria and Fort St.James on the Telegraph Trail and in later life, he was a ferryman transporting freight and people across the Fraser River. Lizette was also Metis with her mother a Cowichan First Nation.

Billie Bouchie Day will be a collaborative, community based celebration with a focus on the contribution that the First Nation, Metis and early settlers made to our community and the region as a whole. Activities being planned will be focused on the whole family and will include a Tradeshow / Market, demonstrations, historical and interpretive displays, story-telling, music, jigging, buskers, a lunch box social, Metis Kitchen Party, and equine related activities. The site will be set up as a encampment along the Telegraph Trail. The event will also focus on creating partnerships between local non-profits and businesses through partnerships and sponsorships respectively. The event’s most recent sponsor is West Fraser Mills.

The “Community Resilience Through Arts and Culture Fund” is focused on rural or First Nation communities and those communities who have experienced hardship, historic oppression or other challenges that would benefit from the power of arts and culture to promote healing, resilience and connection. For information on the fund, check out https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/sports-culture/arts-culture/arts-and-culture-initiatives/community-resilience.

The Friends of Bouchie-Milburn Society established in the autumn of 2017. The group’s Mission Statement is to is to support and unite our community and focus our collective energy on desired projects, events and celebrations that improve the health, liveability, education, safety, and welfare of all Bouchie Lake and Milburn Lake residents through inclusion, kindness and collaboration.

For additional information on Billie Bouchie Day and /or the Friends of Bouchie-Milburn Society, please email bouchielakefriends@gmail.com or Dale Moskalyk, Chair at 778.465.5009 or Heloise Dixon-Warren, Secretary at 250.249.5329