Watching the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremony, where Lil’wat Nation members took centre stage to welcome the world to their traditional territory, Lil’wat Chief Leonard Andrew sat amid dignitaries in the stadium audience, reflecting on the “magnificent” production and all it represented.

After all the years of work bringing the Games together, “that was the outcome, really,” Andrew said on Tuesday (March 9), one day after he and other Lil’wat Nation representatives created, welcomed and blessed the flame for the Whistler leg of the Paralympic Torch Relay in a moving ceremony at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.

“I was very pleasantly surprised at what was shown and what was done.”

Andrew said he was moved to see the Lil’wat and Four Host First Nation symbols choreographed into the production, and impressed by the “incredible” performance of the approximately four dozen Lil’wat members among more than 300 First Nations, Inuit and Métis performers who delighted the audience with their dancing.

“I thought, ‘Wow, our people can dance all night,’” Andrew said, adding that several of the other dignitaries sitting near him commented on their dancing, too.

On average, 13.3 million Canadians were watching as the Lil’wat opened their arms to the world along with the other three host First Nations on whose land the Games are being held, with speaker Levi Nelson, Vania Stager, Miles Andrew and elder Mary Aline James of Lil’wat leading the way. Vancouver Olympic organizers estimated a global audience of more than a billion people for the Opening Ceremony.

Andrew said one of the key things he has sought for Lil’wat and aboriginal people throughout his seven years of work with the preparations for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was “full involvement from the get-go,” and he felt the Opening Ceremony demonstrated the fruits of those labours.

It took a lot of work, Andrew said, expressing great gratitude to all the Lil’wat people, governments and partners who have been involved in Games preparations. But he thinks it’s all been worth it.

“The experience itself has been very fulfilling, but I think what’s going to happen in the future will hopefully be more fulfilling,” Andrew said.

Andrew said he found it to be “quite an honour” how the chiefs of the Four Host First Nations were treated as heads of state throughout the Olympics. He had the opportunity to watch sports and cultural events around Whistler and Vancouver, and welcomed an incredible range of First Nations, Inuit and Métis performers from across Canada to the official 2010 Aboriginal Pavilion in Vancouver, which attracted more than 240,000 visitors.

Andrew said he thinks one of the most important Games legacies for the Lil’wat Nation is the continuation of his people’s involvement with what’s happening in their territory, particularly with sports, venue sites and protection of the environment, and of the partnerships forged for the Olympics.

Under the Shared Legacies Agreement signed in 2002 by the Lil’wat and Squamish nations, the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation and the Province, the Lil’wat and Squamish are members of the Whistler 2010 Sport Legacies society that will own and operate the three Games legacy venues around Whistler.

“I think the full involvement carries forward,” Andrew said, adding that he thinks the partnerships have been panning out. “Whatever happens in the future in our territory, we’re involved in a way.”

Though all historical wrongs cannot be immediately righted, Andrew said he thinks the Games are marking “the start of many things to come.”

“Even though the Olympics will probably never happen again in our lifetime (here), it really fulfilled part of our dreams, part of what we’ve been striving for as a people, not only politically,” Andrew said.

With so many guests present for the Games, watching events on the traditional territory of the Lil’wat and others, Andrew said he thinks many of them are taking away a message about who the Lil’wat are. The SLCC and the culture centre in Mount Currie helped teach visitors about the people of this land, these “living beings,” their past and present, and what they’re doing for the future, Andrew said.

“We’re here, and I think that’s the message a lot of them went away with,” Andrew said, adding, “That’s exactly what we’re about to indicate through the Paralympics, too.”

The Four Host First Nations, whose chiefs and councils signed an agreement in November 2004 to host and support the staging of the 2010 Games, each received $17 million, according to a statement on the Lil’wat Nation website, and more than 100 aboriginal businesses benefited from some $57 million worth of Games-related contracts. The Lil’wat and Squamish nations have also received 300 acres of land from the Province for economic development opportunities, under the shared legacies agreement.