The Williams Lake Indian Band has a new structure where funeral urns can be stored.
A columbarium was unveiled Monday.
Councillor Rick Gilbert says he took it upon himself to start looking at the idea.
“Quite a few people are choosing to go with cremation now and there wasn’t a protocol or anything for dealing for cremated remains,” he says. “Some were getting spread all over the place and other people didn’t know what to do with them.”
Gilbert says after some research he learned what a columbarium was and found a company from Calgary that they ordered the columbarium from.
“It turned out to be quite a bit nicer than we expected,” he says. “We have native designs put on there which was a first that they had done this way and we just sent them the designs we wanted to put on there which was our Band logo, feathers, and some animals like eagle, deer, cougar, bear, and coyote. It really, really turned out nice.”
A gazebo that goes over the columbarium was constructed by Pioneer Log Homes.
In addition to the columbarium that can store 120 urns, Gilbert says the Band also ordered 50 headstones.
The Williams Lake Indian Band has two cemeteries at Sugar Cane-one that has been there since 1881 and a new one that was built in 1982 where the columbarium is located.
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