Towering new mural a beacon of hope, healing

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This article was published 09/11/2024 (691 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Her upraised arms encircle a radiant, light blue moon as a giant red butterfly flutters by her waist and a colourful flowering plant emerges from the ground. She’s holding a sacred eagle’s feather in her right hand.

The backdrop is a pale pinkish-red; the young women’s turquoise ceremonial dress has a rainbow fringe at the hem. A slate grey Inuit inukshuk emerges from the bottom left corner.

This is Giizaagiigo (You Are Loved in Anishinaabemowin), Manitoba’s tallest mural, officially unveiled on Nov. 1. Standing an impressive 150 feet high and 50 feet wide, the work by Jeannie White Bird and Charlie Johnston is located on the side of a Manitoba Housing building at the corner of Kennedy Street and Sargent Avenue.

White Bird was commissioned to paint the mural by the Minister of Families Nahanni Fontaine (St. Johns). The pair connected through their shared work on First Nations issues.

“The mural is part of our provincial strategy on the healing and empowerment of Indigenous women and girls and two-spirit,” Fontaine says in a telephone interview.

“I also knew that I wanted to commission an Indigenous woman to work on this vision that we were trying to convey. Murals play such a role in landscapes. They create conversations and really transform neighbourhoods and show a moment in time. I wanted her to be in the heart of Winnipeg in Treaty 1 in Union Station.”

Fontaine worked with Cora Morgan, special adviser on Indigenous women’s issues, who identified the building at 444 Kennedy St. as the perfect canvas.

The mural has special significance for White Bird, a victim of the ’60s Scoop who testified during the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“My mother died by violence,” says the artist, standing near the mural with Johnston on a cool and blustery November afternoon.

“That’s one of the reasons why I was adopted out. My mother was murdered and (I was) apprehended.”

She explains that the issue of MMIWG stems from the negative impact residential schools had on Indigenous children and families.

“I bring the healing aspects to this mural,” says White Bird, who lives in Selkirk and whose home community is Rolling River First Nation, Treaty 4, near Brandon.

“We have to tell the truth. And, sharing my truth is what I did at the (national inquiry). I gave testimony on behalf of my mother who died of violence. I also gave testimony for myself being a survivor of violence.”

Her connection to Fontaine stems from their longtime mutual involvement with the MMIWG movement. In 2018, she invited Fontaine to the unveiling of a double-sided mural, Sacred Spirits of Turtle Island, she painted in an amphitheatre in Selkirk.

“Nahanni has done such amazing work,” White Bird says, wiping away an emotional tear. ‘That’s why we were on each other’s radar during the inquiry and in the years following.”

Giizaagiigo is the result of a collaborative design process between White Bird, Johnston, Morgan and Fontaine.

“The design kept going back and forth until we were all in sync,” White Bird says.

“Like any piece of public art, it’s the result of a conversation, a dialogue,” says Johnston, owner of C5 Artworks. “Sometimes that conversation is general and sometimes specific. This mural is a result of both.”

The artists began painting the mural in mid-September and worked six to eight hours a day until its unveiling. They used brushes, rollers and spray paint and worked from atop a swing stage, a type of moveable scaffolding used by window washers and construction workers.

Safety courses were required to use the suspended platform; White Bird also had to take a prerequisite course to work at heights, which Johnston already had.

Pointing to the mural, White Bird explains that the central figure represents “the matriarch.”

“She’s well grounded in her culture,” she says. “She knows exactly the reason why she’s here on Mother Earth. She knows her purpose. And, one of her purposes is to be that role model for all the other people, for all of Turtle Island.”

The feather is her own family’s eagle feather.

“It was gifted to me by one of my family members,” says White Bird.

“When they gifted it they said some things that I just couldn’t believe I’d be doing. On my journey I’ve done a lot of those things. On my journey I’ve always been led by that feather. It represents that unconditional love from the eagle.

“The butterfly represents the changing stages in all of us, the metamorphosis,” says White Bird, adding that vibrant colours were part of the vision.

“The mural was created to show Indigenous women, girls and two-spirited that they are loved,” Fontaine says.

And never forgotten.