After lighting a candle and a smudge one day when finished cleaning her house Whitney Alphonse-Manuel had an inspiration.
“I suddenly thought what if they were one and it was a sage candle. I thought about the elders and people who couldn’t smudge in their homes because of small spaces and thought the candle would be a perfect alternative.”
It was a few months into the COVID pandemic when she had the idea which she followed up on and started making candles.
Last week she was a vendor at the Williams Lake Farmers’ Market, selling her candles with cedar, sage or sweetgrass. She calls her business Smoked Smudge Scents.
“I have a few places near Likely where I gather the cedar. I go walk along the creek and I get centred and grounded and it really brings me back to the land and our culture so it’s really important.”
Whitney added she is grateful to her aunt who taught her how to gather cedar, sage and traditional medicines.
Her usual spot to pick sage is at Farwell Canyon, located west of Williams Lake.
“I always go to Farwell. It is one of my favourite places. I usually go to the main point or another road I go along the river.”
She is producing the candles at her home in Williams Lake and grateful for all the support she has received to get her business going.
Originally she chose soy wax to make candles for Christmas gifts for family and friends in 2020 because she said it is sustainable.
“It has a slow burn time so it lasts the longest and is made from plants. It’s non-toxic too. A lot of the candles that my friends used were burning toxins into the air. I decided why not make a candle without toxins and harsh chemicals that they are able to burn around their babies and dogs.”
The 28-year-old, mother of two children, grew up between the Williams Lake First Nation community of Sugar Cane, where her dad Willie Alphonse, Jr. is from, and Tk’emlups te Secwepemc, where her mom Vi Manuel lives.
“My dad was the chief of Williams Lake First Nation before Chief Anne Louie. He is now the executive director of Nenqayni Treatment Centre.”
Whitney said she is deeply connected to both of her parents’ communities.
“My mom took me to every gathering, ceremony, and event that happened in B.C. my whole life,” she said, noting she represented three communities as a powwow princess.
In Grade 10 she moved back to Williams Lake and graduated from Williams Lake Secondary in 2013.
After high school she attended Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo. Later she transferred to Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops where she completed three years toward an archaeology degree.
This fall she plans to return to school to complete the degree.
“It is important that there be Indigenous archaeology because we are telling our own story,” she said.
Whitney and her spouse JJ Quewezance have a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter. They relocated to Williams Lake when she was pregnant with their son.
JJ is originally from Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan near the Manitoba border and it was through that connection Whitney made a trading route to acquire the sweetgrass she uses in her candles.
She said JJ’s family moved from Saskatchewan in 1994 for the “beautiful life B.C. brings.”
While at her booth at the market Friday, July 15, Whitney was wearing some beaded earrings and a necklace her sister Gelaine Bearpaws made for her.
“She makes most of my beadwork.”
READ MORE: Williams Lake’s TRU campus celebrates three years of graduates
news@wltribune.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter