Jennifer Pighin stands besides the logo she designed for Soonats'ooneh, formerly known as the Central Interior Native Health Society.

By Tommy Osborne

Soonats'ooneh

Central Interior Native Health Society unveils new logo and name

Sep 24, 2025 | 12:15 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Central Interior Native Health Society unveiled its new name and logo at an intimate meeting today with Indigenous elders, matriarchs, and other interested parties. Taking on the new name of Soonats’ooneh, meaning “let’s all get well,” this logo and name change is meant to better reflect the community and the diverse Indigenous cultures in the region.

“We need it (the logo) to be bold and, but at the same time, it has to be rooted in the culture, has to be rooted in who we are in this community as diverse folks from various nations, but also rooted in the local culture as we aim to learn and teach. And the only way we can do that is through the health of the land, which is who we are,” Logo Designer Jennifer Pighin said, explaining the new logo.

The logo is meant to represent many aspects of healing and Indigenous culture, such as:

• The outstretched hand is welcoming you in, and is holding berries, as Pighin says “medicine is the land, it’s the berries that we pick.”
• The water represents healing and life.
• The leaf represents the land, and the wide variety of medicines available.
• The feather is symbolic to many Indigenous cultures in different ways, and the colours are for fire, land, water, sky, and the sun.
• The circular shape represents the cyclical nature of life.

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“I believe this will be a warm, welcoming image to present to folks, and invite people in to kind of look at and consider and be a part of, because we’re all one part of one nation, of one community, of one land,” Pighin said.

This reenvisioning comes one year after the passing of Elder Edie Frederick, who was an incredibly influential figure in the community and a leader for many Indigenous events. She, alongside several other matriarchs, were a key part of the name and logo change, so the ceremony to celebrate this change was also an opportunity to remember Edie’s legacy and celebrate her contributions to the community.

“It’s been almost a year that we’ve waited to be able to share this, because we wanted to acknowledge the huge loss of her (Edie) in the community and really take the time to honour this moment,” said Soonats’ooneh Executive Director Shobha Sharma.

“I’m so grateful to our matriarchs for engaging us in this incredible process and gifting us this incredible name that will now carry forward with us,” Sharma continued.

This change also comes at a huge time for Soonats’ooneh, as Sharma revealed that significant expansions are on the way. She said an increase of more than $4 million dollars in operating costs alone has been provided, allowing Soonats’ooneh to expand its space with the adjacent building, alongside expanding capacity to better serve its clients.

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