A welcoming place for people to connect to the land

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This article was published 19/05/2023 (1218 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the end of 2018 Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre’s land-based learning centre in Hillside Beach on the south end of Lake Winnipeg burned to the ground.

For 15 years it had hosted all sorts of group events for Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata’s own people — it has a staff of more than 200 people — to sister organizations in Manitoba and from as far away as New Zealand and Germany to take part in its rural learning and wellness experience for urban families and youth.

A replacement facility — Grey Buffalo Grandfather Wellness Lodge — was completed last year after a lengthy design process in the midst of the pandemic.

The 5,600-square-foot centre, designed by Michael Robertson of Cibinel Architecture, recently received a Prairie Wood Design Award from Wood Works!, a national, industry-led initiative of the Canadian Wood Council.

Although it hasn’t been open a year yet, Marion McKenzie the operations manager at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre, said groups have been queuing up to use the space set on a large wooded property. With 12 bedrooms and 36 beds, she said the facility will often be filled to the brim.

“Now that we are just coming out of COVID we’re slowly getting back to those volumes,” McKenzie said. “We have not even had grand opening yet to be honest.”

The lodge is considered sacred ground and there are specific protocols of behaviour at the facility including no drugs or alcohol regardless of who is attending. It has its own cooking staff familiar with Indigenous cooking.

McKenzie said the space — which is open to non-Indigenous people as well as Indigenous people — provides a welcoming place for people to connect to the land, learn about Indigenous traditions and ceremonies, and participate in cultural activities.

It has its own specifically chosen roster of elders and knowledge keepers but will also allow other organizations to bring their own knowledge keepers. It is not rented out commercially for activities other than traditional land-based training.

“The whole idea for having a space like Grey Buffalo Grandfather Wellness Lodge is so that our Indigenous community has a space to go to, to connect back to the land, to be able to explore culture where they have had culture taken away through inter-generational trauma,” McKenzie said.

The fact that the building has been recognized for its special use of wood in its construction underlines the special character of the place.

For instance, Robertson said the large glass curtain wall is framed in wood — something that would typically be done in aluminum or steel or fibreglass. It was a feature he had not previously used in his design.

“Their dream was to have it be a place of reflection and warmth,” he said. “It is in a very wooded area and having your view framed by wood seems simplistic, but it really worked. Sometimes the simple ideas are the good ones.”

Wood is used throughout the building in various forms including engineered trusses with plywood sheathing, an expansive wood curtain wall, and glulam columns — glued laminated wood layered together to give it structural strength — on the Great Hall.

Rory Koska, executive director of Edmonton-based Wood Works!, said that among others things, the award program recognizes sustainability and innovation.

“Our main drive is market development,” he said. “We are looking into the future.”

McKenzie said that near the end of the design process she and other staff that took part in that process all said together, “Oh my gosh, it looks like a Thunderbird”.

The Thunderbird is a powerful and iconic symbol that means different things to different Indigenous groups.

The facility is a way for the community that Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre serves to reconnect with their culture.

“We live in an urban Indigenous setting,” she said. “It’s also a space for people that are looking to learn about our culture and work toward reconciliation through learning so they can have a better understanding of our culture and way of knowing and being.”

McKenzie would not say how much the building cost, other than that it was paid for with an insurance claim.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca