Standoff paralyzes Indigenous centre

The Circle of Life Thunderbird House — long a hub for Indigenous ceremony and healing — is now at the centre of a standoff between occupants demanding changes and the governing board claiming it has been locked out.

Occupied since March by a group of protesters, those living inside the distinctive round building on the southeast corner of Main Street and Higgins Avenue say they’re not leaving until their demands are met.

The building’s roof has deteriorated and needs to be replaced.

Protest leader Meagan Salwan, a community member and part of the Southern Thunderbird Medicine Drum group formed in 2015, said their stipulations to allow the board access and relinquish their occupation include the creation of a new elder council elected by the community, specifically the local Indigenous cohort.

They are also seeking access to financial statements, a forensic audit conducted by an Indigenous auditor, and greater accountability regarding the lack of transparency and compliance with Thunderbird House’s original by-laws. Salwan, a member of Sandy Bay First Nation, says she’s among 10 or so people who occupy the space during the day, with five or six often staying around the clock.

The group has set up a Facebook page called Occupy Thunderbird House, which has published several conversations allegedly between Salwan and Coleen Rajotte, the chair of the Thunderbird House board.

Salwan, who believes that funds have been mismanaged over the years, said she compiled a list of prospective elders and garnered more than 1,000 signatures in support — people, she says, from all parts of the city. She declined to share this list until a general meeting takes place.

She also wants to reclaim the building in line with the original vision of respected social advocate Mary Richard, who served as Thunderbird House’s first executive director when it opened in 2000. Initially, the building was slated to be a tourist destination.

Richard spearheaded programs at Thunderbird House to help Indigenous youth escape drug abuse, gang life and sex work. She died in 2010.

“The Thunderbird House is for the community,” Salwan said last week. “If anything, get out of the way. Let (us protesters) do our thing and get it done properly.”

“The Thunderbird House is for the community.”– Protest leader Meagan Salwan, a community member and part of the Southern Thunderbird Medicine Drum group

Rajotte, a ’60s Scoop survivor who became board chair for Thunderbird House in late April, after the occupation began, said she shares the goal of restoring it to the place she once accessed for help.

“I was taken away as a little kid,” said Rajotte, a former CBC Manitoba reporter and filmmaker, who was adopted by a family in Winnipeg. “So, I went to Thunderbird House in the early 2000s because they used to have a service with elders, where you could sort of book a healing appointment. I got help. I got support. And I was able to find my family (in 2001). They provided help when I was really looking for it.”

Rajotte was adopted from the Grace Hospital, she said, and grew up in Winnipeg’s Weston and Westwood neighbourhoods. She put herself through university and eventually started a group calling for a settlement from the federal government for its role in the trauma.

“The ’60s Scoop forever altered my life,” she said. “And I will fight for recognition and understanding until the day I die.”

Rajotte told the Free Press she met with Salwan and others in early May, not long after her election to the chair by the outgoing board, and then again in June. She said she was turned away at a locked gate in mid-July when she tried to update them on progress.

Salwan claims that never happened and accused Rajotte of missing a meeting she had planned. The two hold differing views on many aspects of their past interactions.

Rajotte and five other volunteer board members — Tammy Christensen (executive director of Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre Inc.), Della Herrera (executive director of the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre of Winnipeg), Marileen Bartlett (executive director at the Centre for Aboriginal Human Resource Development Inc.), Eric Robinson (former deputy premier under the NDP government of Greg Selinger, and northern affairs minister in Gary Doer’s NDP government) and Randy Way — have been pushing forward with repairs and governance work, Rajotte said, including commissioning an audit, preparing for an annual general meeting for community members and gathering data to share.

“I know they’re upset the building can’t be used for its intended purpose. I know the previous board took away the keys.”– Coleen Rajotte, the chair of the Thunderbird House board

“I know they’re upset the building can’t be used for its intended purpose,” she said. “I know the previous board took away the keys. I know they told her they couldn’t practise their drumming there anymore.”

Salwan was given access to practice with her drum group for many years, and many community members were given keys to use the building, she said.

Rajotte said the keys were taken away due to safety concerns, based on what she had been told by the previous board. The distinctive copper roof, designed to look like an eagle, has been badly damaged, stripped of copper wiring and left vulnerable, and the sprinkler system needs to be replaced.

She said the board has repair proposals from three contractors in hand and $3 million in federal funding from Indigenous Services Canada to restore the building to its original purpose.

Still, Salwan said protesters aren’t about to allow repairs until their demands are met. However, they will permit repair work on the sprinkler system after a fire inspector recently assessed the building. The city confirmed last week that a WFPS fire prevention officer visited Thunderbird House to provide safety information and install smoke alarms.

“Without the elders council, the organization’s ability to operate in accordance with its founding principles and bylaws has been compromised,” Salwan said. “The community deserves a transparent, culturally rooted governance structure that upholds traditional decision-making and ensures the organization serves its intended purpose.”

The city has said little about the situation. Point Douglas Coun. Vivian Santos told the Free Press last month that her office was monitoring the situation.

Rajotte, meanwhile, said she understands those concerns, but stressed progress has been slow, partly because the board only recently secured the original blueprints, which contractors need to proceed. An architect has also been hired.

“Personally, I don’t believe the place should be occupied, as it’s a spiritual centre, and could be viewed as disrespectful to its purpose.”– Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg president Damon Johnston

“That work is going to start ASAP, so it can be completed before winter,” she said. “We are still hopeful the protesters are going to allow that work to take place. That’s my priority.”

The First Nations Indigenous Warriors, a local Indigenous activist group, joined the occupation in solidarity earlier this summer. Member Tre Delaronde said the group is there to back the protesters’ demands.

“We are there to bring back the Thunderbird House back to what it was in the early 2000s, when people went there for ceremony, for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women events and other special events for Indigenous people,” he said.

“The board members are supposed to be taking care of it. This was supposed to be a place for people to come and smudge, do ceremony, be quiet in your thoughts, so you can get that healing and have a healing ceremony with the elders.”

Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg president Damon Johnston said Thunderbird House, like many community projects, has faced its share of challenges. ACW serves as a political and advocacy voice that represents the interests of the urban Indigenous community of Winnipeg.

The ACW and Thunderbird House’s board of directors are members of the urban Indigenous coalition known as the Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle, which represents 30 different Indigenous charitable and not-for-profit agencies in the city.

Johnston says keeping the building’s doors open has been difficult, largely because of funding and systemic barriers.

“The vision is still viable,” Johnston said. “We’ve added some good, strong people to the board. They are very conscious of Mary’s historic vision, and we’re still committed to making that happen.

“But because we don’t have an ongoing core funding for that particular organization… for a programming and service structure. And until we find that, it’s going to continue to struggle because of the high rates of poverty in our community.

“We don’t have the stomach to ask our people to give to that.”

Johnston said he doesn’t believe the occupation is appropriate, given the building’s purpose.

“Personally, I don’t believe the place should be occupied, as it’s a spiritual centre, and could be viewed as disrespectful to its purpose,” he said.

He stressed the board is committed to meaningful change.

“But we can’t make progress on the building until they’re out of there,” he said, adding the city’s homelessness crisis has made matters worse, with several encampments now situated around the building, which is fenced off. “And some of that damage to the building has been caused by our own people.”

City records show Thunderbird House is owned by Whaka Pimadiziiwii Pinaysiiwigamic Inc. — the legal name of Thunderbird House in the Ininew Cree language — and has an assessed value of $3.5 million.

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca