Ktunaxa Nation welcomes move toward shared care of Qat’muk for future generations
Long-standing Ktunaxa stewardship enters next phase through collaborative conservation planning
July 14, 2026
ʔamakʔis Ktunaxa / Ktunaxa Territory
Qat’muk is a sacred and living landscape in the Central Purcell Mountains, west of Invermere.
For Ktunaxa, it is a place of deep cultural and spiritual responsibility. For many others, it is known and loved for its wild beauty, clean water, grizzly bear habitat, backcountry recreation, tourism, and connection to some of British Columbia’s most extraordinary ecosystems.
The Ktunaxa Nation is working with the Province of B.C. and other key partners to protect Qat’muk for everyone, forever. We will follow a collaborative and transparent process to achieve our Vision.
“The most important thing is to let people know that they’re always welcome to come and experience the place,” said Kathryn Teneese, Chair of Ktunaxa Nation Council), in an interview with The Tyee.
Decades of persistence
For more than 30 years, the Ktunaxa Nation has worked to protect Qat’muk through dialogue, persistence, evidence, and relationship-building.
This is not the beginning of Ktunaxa care for Qat’muk; it is the next step in the Nation’s long-standing responsibility to ensure the values of this place endure for future generations.
The planning process now underway with the Province of B.C. could recommend conserving a core portion of the Qat’muk Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area (IPCA), with the potential to permanently connect the Bugaboo and Purcell Wilderness protected areas.
That connection matters: It would help protect important habitats, healthy watersheds, cultural values, recreation, and tourism, while strengthening ecological connectivity across a globally significant mountain landscape.
This is an important step for Ktunaxa achieving our long-term vision for Qat’muk.
In practice, this means Qat’muk is moving through the work required to turn a long-standing Ktunaxa vision into a durable conservation and stewardship framework.
This framework will include reviewing all available and applicable conservation tools (e.g. Park Conservancy, Wildlife Management Areas, etc.), to meet the defined and shared values of the Qat’muk IPCA.
The process will consider how cultural, ecological, recreational, and community values can be cared for together, with input from governments, Shuswap Band, local communities, industry, recreation users, tourism operators, stewardship partners, and people who know and love this place.
That is what makes Qat’muk an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area: Not simply a boundary on a map, but a Ktunaxa-led approach to caring for a living landscape through Indigenous knowledge, science, local knowledge, shared stewardship, and responsibility to future generations.
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Please direct media requests to media@reciprocityconnects.ca
A Qat’muk-specific website is forthcoming to provide current information relevant to the establishment of the IPCA.
This week, the Ktunaxa Nation is hosting their Annual General Assembly, Nation speakers will not be available of interviews until after July 20, 2026.
