Indigenous friendship centre to rise again in Winnipeg

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This article was published 06/04/2023 (1227 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s the first step to bringing back an important community organization for Indigenous people in Winnipeg.

The Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre will be built at 45 Robinson St., in the same lot as its predecessor, the Winnipeg Indian and Métis Friendship Centre. Plans for the new centre, which include a drop-in space, community centre, bingo hall and residence for Indigenous elders, were unveiled at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Thursday.

“Everyone came together and we said, ‘How do we bring this back, in a different way, in a good way,’” said Rachel Sansregret, chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre.

“For the community, as a supportive hub, as a place where youth are coming to receive food after school, where elders can get supports, where families can celebrate their culture.”

The original centre closed in 2018 after the Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres suspended funding, citing unfinished funding applications a the lack of a fully operational board. The building was damaged by fire in October 2022.

Before it closed, it had operated for nearly 60 years and was viewed as a critical resource. It had served as a welcome space for everyone from First Nations people adjusting to life in Winnipeg, to youth playing sports and learning how to dance powwow. In the 1990s, when it was the most popular, 30,000 people visited annually.

The friendship centre model, which uses community programming to serve Indigenous people in urban areas, is used by more than 100 centres across Canada.

Several groups, including Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle and Indigenous Vision for the North End, began discussing how to bring back the friendship centre in 2019.

“Our urban community has long expressed how much they missed the friendship centre here in Winnipeg as a place to gather, and a place to access a supportive hub of resources,” Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre executive director Tammy Christensen said.

By December, the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre had become incorporated as a federally registered charity with a re-established board.

“We have re-established our governance with great care, to ensure that it is structured in a way that the tragedy that befell the previous centre will in no way ever possibly be able to happen to the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre.

“We feel very confident that with this collection of strong and kind-hearted Indigenous leaders, that we will be able to move forward in a good way,” she said.

The group has purchased the land at 45 Robinson St., and demolition of the condemned building will begin later this month. They need $12 million to construct the first phase of the building, which would be the base friendship centre. Construction won’t begin until funding is secured, and it would take around two years for construction to be completed.

The elder residence, bingo hall and community area would be added later. The goal, Sansregret said, is to have a space that is open 24 hours a day for those who need it.

“We know that many of the elders in our community, and we learned even more about this over COVID, the rates of isolation, the challenges with people accessing programming, food security resources,” she said. “So you could come directly down into the centre and not even have to go outside to be able to access resources.”

Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg president Damon Johnston, who is secretary of the centre’s board of directors, said the board will look at opportunities to create more friendship centres in the city.

“Friendship centres are still incredibly important to our community. They provide a venue for our children and youth to come together with elders, which is very important,” he said.

Meetings are planned with municipal leadership, he said, suggesting they would work with True North to add one downtown should True North buy Portage Place.

“I think we’ll work hard to bring up a better understanding of a friendship centre in a large city,” he said. “Because it is a very different environment. We’re serving 102,000 Indigenous persons. That’s massive. There’s no way we can have the capacity to meet it.”

Winnipeg has the largest urban Indigenous population in Canada. The Winnipeg Indian and Métis Friendship Centre was the first friendship centre in Canada to be officially incorporated.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca