Sprawling new mural a celebration of Indigenous culture

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Justine Proulx’s art career started small, with spot tattoos of dragonflies, marigolds and jellyfish. But on Friday, Proulx stood before her largest work yet: a 62-metre-long mural that spans nearly an entire downtown block.

A Métis muralist, tattooist and taxidermist, the 29-year-old Proulx was selected from an extensive pool of applicants to contribute a massive piece of wall art to cover the RBC Convention Centre’s St. Mary’s Avenue exterior, a formerly monochrome stretch between Carlton and Edmonton streets.

Split into four equivalent panels, the digitally-rendered mural, which Proulx dubbed Returning to Our Roots, was installed last week and officially unveiled to the public at a Friday event, with the artist describing her creative process to convention centre and Downtown Winnipeg BIZ staff, along with local elected officials, including provincial cabinet ministers Uzoma Asagwara and Nellie Kennedy.

“Murals kind of fell into my life sometime during COVID, when tattoo artists (couldn’t work) and most of the world was shut down,” explained Proulx, whose first mural project was a meditation on the seven sacred teachings, painted in her mother’s Indigenous Studies classroom at Miles Macdonell Collegiate in 2021.

“I posted it to my Instagram, and I thought it was just going to be a fun project to do and then I’d get right back into tattooing, but it skyrocketed from there,” added Proulx, who now paints one or two murals in classrooms across the city each month.

“I got approached to do one, and then another and then I haven’t stopped, but I never dreamed that I’d be doing one this big on such a prominent building.”

Proulx, who was joined by her family at the reception in the convention centre’s Pan Am room, said the mural was inspired by a few long-standing sources of creative energy: the natural world and the number four.

“It’s a very sacred number in Indigenous teachings,” she said, including the four directions, medicines, stages of the life cycle and seasons.

Accordingly, each of the four panels, created in her own rendition of the vibrant Woodlands style, represents an individual season, showcasing Indigenous plant and animal species from spring’s renewal through winter’s period of reflection.

“I titled this work Return to Your Roots because I think that people, no matter what culture or background they’re from, that’s something we need to do more of. I’m hoping this mural helps awaken a sense of pride, belonging and connection to anyone in the downtown area that gets to see it.”

Kate Fenske, the executive director of the Downtown BIZ, an organization which partnered with the convention centre to develop the mural, said Proulx’s piece is the largest mural her organization has supported to date.

“RBC really jumped at this idea, but with a caveat,” Fenske said after opening blessings by elder Barb Nepinak.

“They wanted a piece that honoured Indigenous culture and demonstrated a strong connection to the community of Winnipeg and Treaty 1 territory.”

Fenske said an Indigenous-led committee was struck to select an artist and to steer the mural’s delivery process.

“It not only transforms the streetscape of this busy city block, but more importantly, it does honour and celebrate Indigenous culture and resilience while bringing in new vibrance and energy to our community.”

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com