Nearly 200 people gathered in the U̓ll̓us Community Centre in Mount Currie on Feb. 4 to celebrate a night of historic firsts for the Lil’wat Nation and the Invictus Games.
It was the first stop on a four-day trip for 15 Invictus athletes and representatives from the four Host Nations. The expedition carried the Invictus flag through the Lil'wat, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam First Nations, culminating in the flag's arrival in Vancouver at the Games' opening ceremony on Feb. 8.
It's the first time Invictus is hosting winter sports, recognizing veterans’ healing occurs year-round.
And the expedition itself is considered a shared journey of healing between servicemembers and members of the Nation. It’s a close collaboration that signifies an unprecedented central role for the four Host Nations.
Lil’wat Councillor Christopher Wells, the evening’s MC, recalled having to fight for recognition during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and noted the expedition launch on Feb. 4 marked an important departure from previous events.
“They're finally acknowledging us for who we are—the people of the West acknowledging our territories,” said Wells. “We're strong in here today … we all come together, one heart, one body, one spirit, and four Host Nations.
“And tonight, we honour everybody.”
For two hours, those gathered under U̓ll̓us' roof enjoyed saq̓úta (dance), a traditional feast and inspiring speeches from Ku̓kwpi7 Skalulmecw Chief Dean Nelson, Ku̓kwpi7 Gélpcal Cultural Chief, and Lhpatq Maxine Joseph Bruce—all in preparation for the journey ahead.
The expedition
From Feb. 4 to 8, The expedition made its way down the Sea to Sky corridor toward Vancouver. The first night, they camped behind the Outdoor School in Mount Currie. The next day, it was snowshoeing in the Callahan Valley. Each day, the expedition party settled into a new campsite and practiced a new traditional skill. It culminated in an overnight camp on Mount Seymour, where they implemented all of the skills they gained together.
Pique sat down with Nick Booth—the CEO of True Patriot Love (TPL), Canada’s national foundation for the military and veteran community. Since 2019, Booth has been the chair of the bid to bring the games to Canada. He’s one of the organizers behind this year’s expedition.
Booth said the expeditions represent a “shared journey of recovery,” something he’s excited to partner with the four Host Nations on.
“So all of the expedition participants are on their own individual journeys, and there's a lovely parallel with the shared journey that we're doing with the First Nations as well, because of their historic challenges with colonialism,” he said.
Another avenue of partnership between the Games and the four Host Nations is the sharing of winter skills. Booth is as excited to highlight military winter training as he is to have the expedition learn traditional skills like camping, snowshoeing, and skiing from representatives of each Nation.
In addition to that exchange of skills, moving Invictus to a winter setting underscores the year-round nature of recovery.
“If you're ill or injured, your recovery journeys don't stop when it starts getting cold,” said Booth. “If you're in Canada, you can do your cycling or other forms of adaptive sport in the summer, right? Obviously, when winter comes, those things aren't available, [so] we wanted to build out adaptive winter programming.”
TPL has been taking Canadian veterans and serving members on challenging expeditions of recovery since 2012, going to places across Canada, and even the North Pole and Antarctica.
Jeremy Blair was on the Antarctica trip. He joined TPL in the summiting of Mount Vinson after a 20-year career in the army that ended in a medical release. He said the adventure led him to a journey of recovery he wasn't expecting.
“When I left [the army] I didn't even know I had a problem,” said Blair. “To go down to Antarctica and walk down there… Not only did I realize maybe there was [trauma], but also that there was a way out of that.”
Blair’s son, who was also medically released from the military, competed in the Dusseldorf Games in 2023. He’s seen how being a part of the Invictus team helped his son's recovery.
“Not being part of a team anymore is the biggest loss of identity,” said Blair. “[The expeditions] are an opportunity to be part of a team again, to feel like you're contributing to a common goal, and realize that you're not alone anymore.”
Blair now runs Off-Trail Odysseys, a veteran-owned and operated company staffed by fellow military veteran volunteers. Like TPL, Off-Trail Odysseys runs expeditions for veterans. That spirit of communal healing extends to the relationship between the Games and the four Host Nations.
Warriors from Lil’wat
The dancing and speeches were intended to welcome the Invictus delegation to Lil’wat’s traditional territory. But Wells reminded those assembled it was important to honour those members of Lil’wat Nation who had fought and died in past wars.
“It's so important that we honour and take care of our war veterans from past and the present, and I'm so thankful that they fought so hard so that we could still be living, speaking our language, singing, dancing and living in a peaceful country,” Wells said.
Coun. Maxine Joseph Bruce echoed Wells’ words in her speech during the last official talk of the night. She likened the traumatic experience of wounded servicemembers to the experience of members of Lil’wat Nation living under 150 years of colonial rule.
“Today, we're on our healing path, on a beautiful journey that's been bent for us,” she said. “And we share that energy with the athletes that will be in our territory, and I feel so emotional that we can be here to support them.”
In a discussion afterwards with Pique, Bruce underscored the similarities between the battles fought by Canadian servicemembers overseas and the historic and ongoing struggles by Indigenous communities to assert sovereignty over their own territories across Canada.
“Our people, we've done so much fighting for our land. We never talk about those battles that we’ve had to experience and endure and try and recover. And even this 150 years of colonialism can be very hurtful,” she said.
“But tonight you see that together, we could move forward.”
The theme of moving forward, together, was on display throughout the evening. Bruce highlighted specific members of the Lil’wat community who’d served, including her father. She said while those veterans might “fall through the cracks of society,” they were welcomed with open arms when they came home to Lil’wat.
“When everything was done, he came home, and the people embraced him,” she said. “And they always say that—even when I went away, they would say, ‘Well, you know where home is.’”
Truth and reconciliation in sport
Bruce was adamant about the importance of sports in healing from trauma.
“These people that are doing the work at these Games, they're still trying to heal,” she said. “And sports is a great way to heal."
The 2025 Games’ unique collaboration with the Host Nations, highlighted by both Booth and Bruce, represents a step towards sport-specific recommendations within the Truth and Reconciliation report. Recommendations 87 to 91 all advocate reconciliation in sport, including: Providing public education on Aboriginal athletes in history; calling on all levels of government to support Aboriginal athletic development; amending the Physical Activity and Sport Act to make sure all aspects of the Canadian sport system are inclusive to Aboriginal peoples; ensuring that all national spots policies, programs, and initiatives are inclusive of Aboriginal Peoples, including elite athlete development and coach-training programs; and meaningfully involving Host Nations in international sporting events.
It’s that last one in particular that Booth said sets this year’s Invictus Games apart from previous events. The partnership with the four Host Nations has been more pronounced, from the start of the bid in 2019, than in other countries or in Canada’s past games.
He told Pique a letter of support from Lil’wat Chief Dean Nelson and the four Host Nations helped get the bid across the finish line in 2019. Squamish Nation Councillor Wilson Williams was part of the bid team, and stood on stage alongside the Minister of Veterans Affairs for the announcement the Games were coming to Canada. Councillor Dennis Thomas from Tsleil-Waututh was in the Netherlands during the Hague Games to receive the announcement of the Games.
“So at every stage, the leadership of the First Nations has been front and centre,” Booth said. “It's been a really inspiring part of the whole project.”
That extends, both Booth and Bruce were surprised to see, to the British Royal Family.
“Prince Harry stood on stage in front of the world and said … the Games are coming to Canada at the invitation of and with the permission of the First Nations,” Bruce said.
The year after, Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle visited the Ullus Community Centre—“to this same gymnasium,” Bruce said.
She acknowledged that while there was sometimes a “funny connotation” talking about the Royals in Lil’wat—the British Royal Family was, after all, a global force for colonialism, ruling one in every five people in the world at the height of its power. It’s difficult to decouple the monarchy from that legacy. But Bruce is conciliatory.
“You look at Prince Harry and the messages that come along with that Royal Family, and then it's ironic that he's brought this here, and he's helping people heal,” she said.
TPL is running an exhibition on Indigenous servicemembers during the games, telling the story of Indigenous service in the Canadian Armed Forces—highlighting famed warriors like Tommy Prince and the Devils Brigade in the Second World War, and featuring profiles of other Indigenous soldiers who’ve served, including Tim O’Hear, a Dene Nation member and part of the expedition.
The exhibition is offered through TPL’s Legacy Fund—another first for the Invictus Games.
Legacy of the expedition
For Invictus athletes, going home sometimes isn't simple. Booth says while finishing can be a “bump” in your spirits, it can amount to a temporary reprieve from pain and trauma. Many applicants don’t even get that reprieve, given the limits on participants in the Games.
“Invictus is a wonderful thing, and people have told me that they are alive because they're in the Games,” Booth said.
“But it's only eight days, and people's journeys of recovery carry on beyond being in the Games.”
The fleeting nature of the Games, and the recognition that hundreds of servicemembers who apply to participate don't get in in the first place, led TPL to launch its first-ever Legacy Fund this year.
"What to do next after your time in service is not obvious, and even if you're not medically released," said Booth.
"If you've been a submariner for 20 years, what does that look like in the civilian world? How's the transition and that cultural change from being told what to do every day, what to wear every day, where to go every day, to all of a sudden a much more fluid, dog-eat-dog world?"
The Legacy Fund aims to provide seven, year-round projects aimed at helping servicemembers' recovery, including providing access to year-round adaptive sports, advancing Indigenous reconciliation, research into which aspects of the winter games have the greatest positive impact on participants, and veterans' transition and employment opportunities.
TPL has spent some of the money already, Booth said, on providing psychological first-aid training for families coming to the Games. Six veterans are being trained in sports presentation—including lighting, music, DJ-ing and other technical aspects of the gig. And on Sunday, Feb. 9, TPL held an employment symposium with more than 200 employers across the private and public sectors.
You can donate to True Patriot Love’s Legacy Fund through their website. TPL is a registered charity and can issue a receipt for tax purposes.
Setting out
Roxanne Joe is an administrative assistant at Lil’wat Lands & Resources. She’s also the Nation’s representative on the expedition. A massive black rucksack with all her gear sat on a stage behind her as she outlined the task ahead to the assembled guests of the Nation.
“I’m very proud to be a part of this expedition team, and extremely proud to get two days in our Lil’wat territory, because it’s so vast and we have so much to discover out there,” she said.
“Yes, even in this very cold, harsh weather,” she added. On the day of the expedition’s reception, temperatures reached -11.
“We’re so proud of her … she's representing the Lil’wat Nation [and] St’á’'imc Nation on this journey,” said Wells.
“My hands go up to all the people that are going to be travelling. Today we pray for your heart, your mind, your body, your spirit, while you travel through the territories. And that's the way our ancestors travelled, for thousands and thousands of years, and we're still here.”
