{"id":92493,"date":"2025-05-15T08:26:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=92493"},"modified":"2025-05-15T08:26:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:26:50","slug":"halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\/","title":{"rendered":"Halfway River First Nation celebrates taekwondo champions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca WONOWON, B.C. \u2014 A northeast B.C. First Nation is celebrating the accomplishments of its small but mighty taekwondo program. Illona Wiebe is a martial arts instructor at Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) and teaches classes with students each Tuesday. Wiebe says she began the program approximately a year ago, after she was encouraged to start a self-defence class at HRFN by her friend, Chris Souvie. Souvie is a resident of HRFN. Having married into the community, he lives on the reserve with his family. \u201cI\u2019d been given private kickboxing lessons,\u201d recalls Wiebe. \u201cChris asked if I\u2019d do it out there. \u201cWe decided that doing taekwondo would be better, because I can actually advance the kids and test them for belts.\u201d Wiebe, a&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F15%2Fhalfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca WONOWON, B.C. \u2014 A northeast B.C. First Nation is celebrating the accomplishments of its small but mighty taekwondo program. Illona Wiebe is a martial arts instructor at Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) and teaches classes with students each Tuesday. Wiebe says she began the program approximately a year ago, after she was encouraged to start a self-defence class at HRFN by her friend, Chris Souvie. Souvie is a resident of HRFN. Having married into the community, he lives on the reserve with his family. \u201cI\u2019d been given private kickboxing lessons,\u201d recalls Wiebe. \u201cChris asked if I\u2019d do it out there. \u201cWe decided that doing taekwondo would be better, because I can actually advance the kids and test them for belts.\u201d Wiebe, a... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2025%2F05%2F15%2Fhalfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Halfway River First Nation celebrates taekwondo champions - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halfway River First Nation celebrates taekwondo champions - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Ed Hitchins, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Energeticcity.ca WONOWON, B.C. \u2014 A northeast B.C. First Nation is celebrating the accomplishments of its small but mighty taekwondo program. Illona Wiebe is a martial arts instructor at Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) and teaches classes with students each Tuesday. Wiebe says she began the program approximately a year ago, after she was encouraged to start a self-defence class at HRFN by her friend, Chris Souvie. Souvie is a resident of HRFN. Having married into the community, he lives on the reserve with his family. \u201cI\u2019d been given private kickboxing lessons,\u201d recalls Wiebe. \u201cChris asked if I\u2019d do it out there. \u201cWe decided that doing taekwondo would be better, because I can actually advance the kids and test them for belts.\u201d Wiebe, a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/15\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-15T12:26:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Halfway River First Nation celebrates taekwondo champions\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-15T12:26:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":561,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/15\\\/halfway-river-first-nation-celebrates-taekwondo-champions\\\/\",\"name\":\"Halfway River First Nation celebrates taekwondo champions - 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