Winning design of Peguis statue to be unveiled at legislature

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This article was published 23/08/2023 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Plans will be revealed Thursday for a ‘larger than life’ monument on the legislature grounds honouring a key Indigenous figure in Manitoba’s history.

Friends of the Peguis Selkirk Treaty will unveil the design for the towering bronze statue of Chief Peguis, which could be in place a year from now.

Organization co-chairman John Perrin said the monument will stand on the west side of the north entrance to the grounds.

“The location was our first choice,” Perrin said. “Everybody going in will pass under the gaze of Chief Peguis.”

The provincial government has contributed $500,000 to the project, and Perrin said a fundraising drive to collect the other half of the cost will begin soon.

Peguis, who was born in the Great Lakes area, was among the First Nations people who migrated west with the fur trade in the late 18th century, settling on Netley Creek.

The monument will commemorate the 1817 Peguis Selkirk Treaty, which was the first formal written agreement in Western Canada recognizing Indigenous land rights.

It will also be the first on the Legislature grounds to honour the contributions of First Nations people to the founding and building of Manitoba.

A jury that included Southern Chiefs Organization Grand Chief Jerry Daniels, Swan Lake First Nation Chief Jason Daniels and Winnipeg Art Gallery CEO Stephen Borys chose the winning design about two weeks ago.

Perrin said the group is aiming to have the monument’s official unveiling on Sept. 28, 2024, the 160th anniversary of Peguis’s death and two days before Orange Shirt Day.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca