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Unique lodge to provide a safe, comfortable home for Indigenous elders in Alberta

Applications are being accepted this month for residents to a new Indigenous elders lodge about to open near the community of Grande Cache, 430 km west of Edmonton. Get a feel for Kikinow and what it means to the community.

Kikinow Elders Lodge means 'our home' for Indigenous community near Grande Cache

A man in a blue coat and ball cap stands in front of a building and garden.
Winston Delorme, a Victor Lake Co-operative member, at the Kikinow Elders Lodge, which is nearing completion near Grande Cache, Alta. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)

After years of planning and building, a new Indigenous elders lodge is about to open near the Rocky Mountain community of Grande Cache, Alta.

"It feels good to be here," said Winston Delorme, surveying progress on the 17,200-square-foot Kikinow Elders Lodge.

"When we first got here there used to be a road up here and it was just bush," said Delorme. Now it's "almost a full, operating lodge here — for our people."

The idea for the lodge, located on the Victor Lake Co-operative, an Indigenous land holding on the north boundary of Grande Cache, 430 kilometres west of Edmonton, was first conceived in 2018 and construction got underway in 2023.

Applications are being accepted this month from Indigenous people in the area who want to live in the 14-bed facility.

A large room is littered with tiles and a yellow ladder as work continues on the lodge.
Finishing touches are being done in the lodge's main eating area. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)

Victor Lake is one of the six Indigenous co-operatives and enterprises in the Grande Cache area.

Delorme, a Victor Lake community leader, points to the building's half-moon design — with its teepee and fireplace at the heart of the lodge, smudge area, crafting room and community kitchen — as examples of what makes the $15-million dollar project unique.

Kikinow means "our home" in Cree and Delorme said the goal is to create a non-institutional place in the community where elders can age comfortably and safely.

"They get to come and go as they please. It's not a jail for them," he said.

"If they want to go to town, they go to town, if they want to go home for the night — back to their old home — that's up to them. That's the biggest thing is they're not kept." 

A woman in a blue coat looks out from a balcony at the mountains.
Victor Lake Co-operative member Hilda Hallock checks out the view from one of the rooms at Kikinow Elders Lodge, near Grande Cache, Alta. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)

Hilda Hallock, a 57-year-old Victor Lake community member, said she can see herself eventually living at the lodge.

Looking out the balcony of the space, Hallock sees the same mountain views that she's had all her life.

"I believe we are the land and the land is us," she said.

"This building will allow me to continue to live that life as I age, to maintain that connection and not be removed from it." 

Hallock described the lodge as "warm and welcoming." Its windows and walls even include etchings of her grandma's flower beadwork pattern, she said. 
White flowers on the outside of glass connecting at the entrance of a building.
Patterns, based on locally done beadwork, adorn the lodge's entrance. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)

It's a place that Hallock said will free her of life's "everyday stresses," like ensuring her pipes don't freeze and she has enough wood chopped to last the winter.

Funding for the project is coming from the federal and provincial governments, the Municipal District of Greenview and other municipal regional partners with help from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, said Shyam Menon, director of portfolio management with The Evergreens Foundation.

WATCH | Take a tour of the Kikinow Elders Lodge:

Tour a unique Indigenous elders lodge in northwestern Alberta

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Duration 3:04
Applications are being accepted for prospective residents of the Kikinow Elders Lodge, opening this summer near Grande Cache, Alta. Get a feel for Kikinow — Cree for 'our home' — and what it means to the community.

The not-for-profit management company will run the seniors living facility.

"This project is a unique partnership between a housing management body and an Indigenous organization," Menon said, "bringing much needed culturally appropriate housing and care to the elders in the region." 

Staff with Scott Builders Inc. are continuing work on infrastructure, landscaping and the interior of Kikinow Elders Lodge with residents expected to move in later this summer. 

A woman in a jean jacket sits next to some windows of a curved room.
Shirley Delorme, president of Victor Lake Co-operative, in one of the lodge's common areas. (Adrienne Lamb/CBC)

Shirley Delorme, president of the Victor Lake Co-operative, said opening up applications for residents makes it feel real. 

Delorme said she expects the lodge to be a special place for the whole community.

"I think we're going to have a lot of involvement with the younger generation," she said. "This is going to be a common place where they can come and learn from the elders."

A drone shot that shows off a half moon shaped building design with a black roof.
A photo captured by a drone shows the layout of the Kikinow Elders Lodge. (Submitted: The Evergreens Foundation)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adrienne Lamb is an award-winning multi-platform producer based in Edmonton. She served for several years as a national arts reporter and as host/producer of Our Edmonton. Prior to moving to Alberta, Adrienne worked for CBC in Ontario and New Brunswick. Adrienne is a graduate of Western University with a degree in English and anthropology and a master's in journalism.