To be a pilgrim is to leave the safety, certainty and predictability of our daily lives for the uncertainty of the pilgrim’s path, to seek answers to our questions, knowing that there are no guarantees that we’ll discover anything at all.

After his wife passed away suddenly, Wayne Emde’s son Jason, who lives in Japan, invited him to walk the 1200-kilometre Buddhist pilgrimage path to the 88 Temples on Shikoku. A year later he travelled with a friend to Spain to walk the 800-kilometre Camino Frances.

For Wayne, Shikoku was a journey of remembrance, reflection, and reconciliation with the past while the yellow arrows on the Camino pointed west to his future.

Presented by Wayne Emde

Jin Shin Jyutsu is an ancient Japanese healing art that uses gentle touch on specific points of the body to harmonize energy flow and promote physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

In this introductory class you will learn about the ancient healing art of gentle acupressure in the tradition of Jin Shin Jyutsu. Underlying principles will be explained as well as easy applications (gentle holds) will be introduced. The latter will be hands-on (on ourselves). Expect a learning experience interspersed with simple, relaxing meditative self care practices. A few hand-outs will save you the trouble of taking notes and make it easy to continue at home.

Presented by Jolanda Himmelstein

Prime Minister Carney's address to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2026 emphasized that the United States led world economic order was over, and that the rest of the world had to adapt to this new reality.  This presentation will discuss the post World Ward II rise of the United States as the world leader, the recent rise of Asian countries, and the shift in the United States under President Trump to an America First Policy.  In response, Canada and other countries are reshaping their global trading relationships.  It is too early to know what a new world order will look like, but we have a sense of the direction it is moving.  Class participants are encouraged to read PM Carney's address to the WEF. 

Presented by Ron Krystynak

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Lake Country Nikkei: Japanese Pioneers of the central Okanagan 1900-1950 is a deep dive into the lives of a dozen immigrants in Okanagan Centre and Winfield: their marriages, enterprises, and social and community experiences. The fact that so much information is available about so few is itself an indication that something unusual was going on in these two places –in what did transpire, and what did not transpire. The story culminates in the early 1940s, which were so tumultuous in other parts of the valley. In an era of mounting anxiety about immigration, this presentation describes how Japanese Canadians helped grow a community to which they were integral, yet apart, and in which their neighbours evidently refused to comply with widespread anti-Asian sentiment. It is based on a booklet of the same name, recently published by Lake Country Museum with the support of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society.

Presented by Don McNair