The Land: Places and People

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Flags representing (from left) Treaty One First Nations, the Métis Nation and Dakota Nations were raised at City Hall Wednesday morning and will be flying permanently as part of an ongoing commitment to reconciliation.
No Subscription Required

Flags of Treaty One, the Dakota and Métis fly at city hall

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Flags of Treaty One, the Dakota and Métis fly at city hall

Gabrielle Piché 4 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 15, 2021

Drumbeats reverberated as four Indigenous leaders rode horseback past the brick-walled restaurants on King Street: it was the beginning of a ceremony to recognize the place of Indigenous people in Winnipeg.

On Wednesday morning, the flags of Treaty One First Nations, the Dakota and the Métis were hoisted at city hall. They'll be there permanently, alongside the flags of Canada, Manitoba and Winnipeg.

"It'll make our people proud that their flag will be flying at city hall," said Sagkeeng First Nation Chief Derrick Henderson. "That is so significant."

Chiefs, representatives of various Indigenous groups and Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman spoke at the flag-raising event. Ribbon skirts, headdresses and face masks were abundant among the crowd.

Read
Wednesday, Sep. 15, 2021
Roselyn Advincula (above) and her husband got their citizenship in March and will vote for the first time in the 2021 federal election. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press)
No Subscription Required

Immigrant, newcomer communities seek to get out the vote

Julia-Simone Rutgers 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Immigrant, newcomer communities seek to get out the vote

Julia-Simone Rutgers 4 minute read Thursday, Sep. 9, 2021

When Roselyn Advincula pictures an election, she pictures a party.

In her home country of the Philippines, candidates bring in celebrity endorsements and crowd-rousing chants to inspire the electorate. Living near a polling station, she remembers sharing hellos and leaflets with the jubilant crowds walking past her door to vote.

Advincula, 39, and her husband moved to Canada 13 years ago, but just got their citizenship in March. The couple will vote for the first time in the 2021 federal election, and are looking forward to bringing the familiar atmosphere to their "second home."

"It's a mixed emotion for me, it brought back memories and excitement," Advincula said at a voting campaign event Thursday in Winnipeg's Central Park.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 9, 2021
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The maze-like halls of expansive production office
No Subscription Required

Set of The Porter a testament to the special connection production has with Winnipeg's Black history

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Set of The Porter a testament to the special connection production has with Winnipeg's Black history

Julia-Simone Rutgers 12 minute read Thursday, Sep. 2, 2021

On a rainy Friday evening in Winnipeg’s landmark Nutty Club building, camera crews, grips, food services, hair and makeup teams, stand-ins and actors are spinning about in dance-like organized chaos.

The five-storey candy warehouse — first erected in 1905 and still standing in the shadow of active CP and CN rail lines — has been transformed, pulled back to its turn-of-the-20th-century roots as a set for CBC’s upcoming TV drama The Porter. At each stop along the building’s steep wooden staircase, the team behind Canada’s largest Black-led production is hard at work bringing the roaring ‘20s — and an oft-forgotten story of Black liberation and empowerment — to life.

On one floor, cast and crew block their scene movements, listening raptly to directors, speaking in huddles, donning crisp white shirts and suspenders or gowns, preparing for the crack of the clapperboard.

A floor above, the members of the “video village” tuck on their headphones, lean over screens and warn each other not to move, lest the ceilings shake below.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 2, 2021
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS People take part in a Red River Echoes community meeting at Vimy Ridge Park to discuss renaming the Wolseley neighbourhood in Winnipeg on Sunday.
No Subscription Required

Group engages community on renaming Wolseley neighbourhood

Malak Abas 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Group engages community on renaming Wolseley neighbourhood

Malak Abas 4 minute read Monday, Aug. 30, 2021

In 1870, Col. Garnet Wolseley led a military expedition into Manitoba to violently overthrow Louis Riel’s provisional government at the Red River Colony. On Sunday afternoon, a group gathered at Vimy Ridge Park to discuss how to push for the renaming of the neighbourhood that bears his name.

Red River Echoes, a Métis collective that first came together with the purpose of “bringing an alternative voice to what Métis people think in Manitoba” after Manitoba Metis Federation president David Chartrand put out an ad with the Winnipeg Free Press in March in support of the Winnipeg Police Service, put together the rendezvous to take questions and comments community members might have around the growing conversation to rename Wolseley.

"With a lot of names being changed right now, we thought it was a good opportunity,” Red River Echoes member Claire Johnston said. “And Wolseley in particular has a really violent and negative association for Métis people, and also all other people of colour in who live in Winnipeg.”

In the months since the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves near a residential school in Kamloops, B.C., calls have been sparked across the country to rename landmarks named after people who had a hand in the colonization of Canada. In Winnipeg, Wolseley isn’t the first instance — calls to rename Bishop Grandin Boulevard due to its namesake’s hand in the residential school system have resulted in consultations and a possible recommendation for its renaming coming to city council this fall.

Read
Monday, Aug. 30, 2021
Supplied photos The cabin all closed up for the winter, way back in the fall of 1944.
No Subscription Required

Swimming with local history

Laurie Mustard 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Swimming with local history

Laurie Mustard 4 minute read Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021

Get the sunscreen, we’re going to Patricia Beach!

In fact, we’re even going to get a history lesson on who Patricia was, and why the beach was named for her.

The story all revolves around a summer cabin that was built at Patricia Beach back about 1944, at that time all privately owned by George and Olive Allen, and which still exists and thrives today on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg.

Gotta’ admit, I knew nothing of the history of Patricia Beach until a few days ago when I received a very interesting e-mail from Catherine Lee, George and Olive’s granddaughter.

Read
Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021
Cloud pruning is a technique used to train mugo pines into a shape resembling a cloud.
No Subscription Required

Japanese garden an enduring cultural experience

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Japanese garden an enduring cultural experience

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021

The Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba, 180 McPhillips St., opened to the public in 1987. The centre offers a wide range of programs which are designed to promote and enhance the understanding of Japanese culture. The centre also serves as the site for a beautiful Japanese garden. Built by Yoshimaru Abe who was born in Japan in 1914 and came to Canada with his family in 1927, the garden is an enduring cultural experience.

Prior to building the garden at the centre, visitors to the Japanese Folklorama exhibit in 1971 and in the years following had the opportunity to see a Japanese garden recreated by Abe. Using moss, rocks, and pieces of wood, Abe recreated an authentic Japanese garden on a concrete arena floor.

A gardener is called niwashi in Japanese. Abe was the distinguished niwashi at the Japanese cultural centre’s garden into his 90’s and was followed by Sam Matsuo, who maintained the garden for 10 years. Both Abe and Matsuo were assisted by dedicated volunteers. Today the niwashi is Raymond Normandeau, who has been involved with the centre for several years as well as in the building of the garden at the Japanese Pavilion at Folklorama. Normandeau will oversee an expansion of the garden at the Japanese Cultural Association — which is slated to begin this fall.

Currently, there are two different areas to the garden. The front garden is a long narrow strip on the outside of the building that faces into a concrete parking lot. The inner garden is an enclosed garden accessed by a short bridge and tall wooden gate. “It is not a pure Japanese garden,” says Normandeau. “It is representative of a Japanese garden. We don’t have the stalwarts of Japanese gardens — bamboo, clipped azaleas, and the black pine which is one of the most popular pine species in a Japanese garden.” But many fine elements of Japanese garden design can indeed be found here.

Read
Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Craig Block, which has gone up for sale, housed perhaps the first Black union in North America, the Order of Sleeping Car Porters.
No Subscription Required

Craig Block link to city’s Black history

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Craig Block link to city’s Black history

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021

Above a fruit seller in a small brick building on Main Street, a group of Black railway porters made history.

The Order of Sleeping Car Porters, formed in Winnipeg in 1917, was North America’s first Black labour union. Five years later, they established offices and a meeting hall on the second storey of the building, the Craig Block, at 795 Main St.

Now, the building has hit the market, without any historical status protections or a bronze plaque to commemorate its history.

History writer Christian Cassidy said he’s seen the building, which recently housed retail store Ma’s Fishing, go up for sale once or twice in the past. Each time, he worries someone will buy it and knock it down. It’s one of last buildings that links Winnipeg to the history of its Black communities.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021
SUPPLIED The City of Selkirk announced it has purchased the Garry Theatre for $350,000, plus closing costs.
No Subscription Required

The show must go on as Selkirk buys theatre

Cody Sellar 3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

The show must go on as Selkirk buys theatre

Cody Sellar 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021

Many in Selkirk thought the credits had rolled for the Garry Theatre, but it appears there’s a sequel.

Landmark Cinemas decided to close it in May and on Wednesday, the City of Selkirk announced it had purchased the theatre for $350,000, plus closing costs.

“What we’ve heard so far is people are very excited and very happy that the city has been able to secure the property,” said Selkirk CAO Duane Nicol.

Nicol said the city will reach out to the community to determine how best to use the building. The city hopes it will become a centre for arts and culture, he said.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021
Supplied Charlie Johnston portrays an elaborate game of cat’s cradle that becomes a cosmic session of electrochemical psychotherapy at 357 Eveline St. in Selkirk.
No Subscription Required

Selkirk art crawl centres on city's thriving mural scene

Ben Waldman  6 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Selkirk art crawl centres on city's thriving mural scene

Ben Waldman  6 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021

Sometimes a wall is more than just a wall.

It’s a blank canvas. And in recent years, artists in Selkirk have turned several into works of art, highlighting local figures and traditions, using paint to transform bricks and plaster in the downtown into a growing visual history of the city.

Since 2018, nearly 20 murals have emerged, depicting everything from the traditional community round dance to Indigenous and settler women thriving on the Prairie landscape to a grandmother passing on her teachings. Others bring needed attention to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and to everyone affected, in the past and present, by the Indian Residential School System, those who came home and those who never did, artist Jordan Stranger says.

All these murals will serve as the backdrop for a free public art crawl Sept. 4 and 5, with local vendors and artisans posting up next to them and getting a long-awaited opportunity to share their work with the community, including handmade goods, paintings, crafts, sewing and woodworking pieces, and much more.

Read
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021
The fully electric Tundra Buggy is 16 feet tall, 12 feet wide, and 45 feet long.
No Subscription Required

Iconic Churchill Tundra Buggy goes electric

Martin Cash 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Iconic Churchill Tundra Buggy goes electric

Martin Cash 5 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021

The Churchill travel company, Frontiers North Adventure, has been operating its fleet of iconic Tundra Buggies for decades but for various reasons John Gunter, CEO of the company, knew the fleet needed to be upgraded.

A chance encounter between Gunter and Red River College’s former head of research and partnerships three years ago put Gunter on the path towards electrifying the Tundra Buggies.

On Tuesday, the fruits of that labour were revealed at Red River College’s Vehicle Technology and Energy Centre (VTEC) — the first EV (electric vehicle) Tundra Buggy.

It was a collaborative effort between Frontiers North, RRC’s VTEC, New Flyer and the non-profit Vehicle Technology Centre that pooled a growing expertise in heavy vehicle electrification that has been developing over the past decade in Winnipeg.

Read
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2021
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS About 50 people gathered outside a TD Bank at Notre Dame Avenue and Sherbrook Street Sunday.
No Subscription Required

Protesters gather at corner to oppose funding of pipeline

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Protesters gather at corner to oppose funding of pipeline

Cody Sellar 4 minute read Monday, Aug. 23, 2021

About 50 people from Winnipeg’s Mennonite community gathered Sunday at a TD Bank at the corner of Notre Dame Avenue and Sherbrook Street to protest the bank’s funding of the Line 3 pipeline replacement.

As rain pelted down on a canopy of umbrellas, one man cut his TD Bank card into pieces while the crowd cheered. After some minutes of song and prayer, the group took non-permanent markers and wrote messages over the windows of the bank.

“Stop fossil fuel funding,” one man wrote on the door. The red ink ran in long streaks from the rain down over the bank’s hours.

Organizer Steve Heinrichs said he drew inspiration from Indigenous communities leading protests in Minnesota.

Read
Monday, Aug. 23, 2021
CAROL SANDERS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Morgan Fontaine (nee Sizeland), left, grew up blocks from the rez school in River Heights and first met Ted Fontaine, right, when he was one of the
No Subscription Required

City considering new name for park near former residential school to honour Indigenous leader

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

City considering new name for park near former residential school to honour Indigenous leader

Joyanne Pursaga 5 minute read Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021

AS a residential high school student, the site now known as Wellington Park offered him rare moments of joy.

As an adult survivor of that system, it helped trigger both positive memories and quiet, disturbing flashbacks.

Theodore Fontaine, who died in May, found more than a chance to play hockey and baseball at the Assiniboia Indian Residential School, according to his wife Morgan Fontaine.

“These fields, this was just for him a time of that little taste of freedom that he longed for.… It was just before his seventh birthday (that) he lost his freedom,” she said.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021
Rylee Nepinak and his brother River led Anishiative’s first land-based leadership camp for youth over three days at Cedar Lake. (Supplied)

Landing young leaders

Julia-Simone Rutgers 6 minute read Preview

Landing young leaders

Julia-Simone Rutgers 6 minute read Monday, Aug. 16, 2021

Sitting in the shade of some trees between Hope and Princeton, B.C., on Thursday, 25-year-old Rylee Nepinak is 230-kilometres into a coast-to-coast bike ride raising funds for youth in Tataskweyak Cree Nation, a northern Manitoba community struggling with the impact of a suicide crisis among its young people.

He’s been on the road for two days; he drove west earlier in the week, pivoting quickly after the completion of another project fuelled by his passion to support and empower Manitoba’s Indigenous youth.

Back home in Winnipeg, Nepinak heads up the North End community volunteer group Anishiative, which leads Indigenous youth in caring for their relatives and community.

The organization has grown and adapted, since its origins in 2019, when Nepinak dreamed up a camp to equip Indigenous youth with land-based traditional teachings, health and well-being tools and survival skills.

Read
Monday, Aug. 16, 2021
Preserving stories of Muslim history in Manitoba
No Subscription Required

Preserving stories of Muslim history in Manitoba

John Longhurst  3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Preserving stories of Muslim history in Manitoba

John Longhurst  3 minute read Friday, Feb. 5, 2021

It was in the early 1900s when one of the first Muslims to live in Manitoba arrived in the province.

His name was Ahmed Awid, and he came from what is now Lebanon — one of perhaps fewer than 1,000 Muslims in Canada at the time.

Awid settled in Brandon, where he married a local woman and established two successful businesses before moving to Edmonton in 1928.

Awid’s story is one of many told in a new book: Muslims in Manitoba: a History of Resilience and Growth.

Read
Friday, Feb. 5, 2021
No Subscription Required

C’est au tour des missionnaires africains

Marie BERCKVENS de La Liberté (Collaboration spéciale) pour le Winnipeg Free Press 5 minute read Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, la contribution de prêtres missionnaires venus d’Afrique est toujours plus évidente dans le diocèse de Saint-Boniface. Joseph Nnadi, professeur retraité de l’Université de Winnipeg, a réfléchi à ce phénomène (1).

Il aime dire de l’abbé d’origine haïtienne Jean-Baptiste Georges, qui séjournait à Saint-Boniface durant les vacances d’été de 1945 à 1949, qu’il s’agit du « premier prototype de missionnaire africain » à Saint-Boniface: « L’archevêque Georges Cabana le faisait venir ici pendant l’été pour l’aider à convaincre les Noirs qui habitaient Saint-Boniface et peut-être aussi Winnipeg de venir à l’église. Les Noirs comme les Autochtones se sentaient négligés, méprisés, déçus... Cet archevêque a devancé les autres. »

Il aura fallu attendre le début des années 1990 pour voir d’autres prêtres africains arriver à Winnipeg, sous l’impulsion de l’archevêque Antoine Hacault. « Aujourd’hui, sous la gouverne de l’archevêque de Saint- Boniface Mgr Albert LeGatt, il y a 61 prêtres en ministère actif, dont 16 sont africains. »

Ce phénomène est appelé « l’évangélisation en sens inversé ». Dans les années 1960, l’évangélisation allait de paire avec la colonisation. « À l’origine du mouvement, l’évangélisation se faisait dans un sens, un peu partout vers l’Afrique et le tiers-monde. Maintenant, les missionnaires quittent l’Afrique pour aller dans les pays où l’Église catholique existe de longue date. L’Afrique a des missionnaires parce qu’elle avait reçu des missionnaires. On voit ce phénomène en France, en Italie, en Angleterre, au Canada... »

Daniel Bahuaud photo Vanessa Ahing: ‘Je mange du chevreuil, de la bernache et du canard. C’est la viande la plus naturelle qui soit.’
No Subscription Required

Chasser, pour avoir la conscience tranquille

Daniel Bahuaud de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Chasser, pour avoir la conscience tranquille

Daniel Bahuaud de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017

Vanessa Ahing a été végétarienne pendant plus de quatre années. Par refus de l’industrie de la viande qui, à son avis, est cruelle et nuit à l’environnement. Pourtant, un bon steak lui manquait. Pour réconcilier conscience et palais, un choix nouveau s’imposait...

Un soir de septembre, 2013, Vanessa Ahing rentrait de la campagne, où elle avait abattu son premier chevreuil. Souvenir de l’enseignante de 31ans: “J’étais toute seule. J’avais suivi une formation de chasse pour femmes, organisée par la Manitoba Wildlife Foundation. Mon chevreuil, coupé en quarts, était dans un sac de hockey dans le coffre de ma Honda Civic. C’était mon premier animal. Je voulais vivre l’expérience complète de la chasse. Donc pas question pour moi d’aller chez un boucher. D’ailleurs, j’étais étudiante. Je n’avais pas le fric pour me payer un tel service.

“Je me demandais comment j’allais faire pour préparer cette viande. Je n’ai pas été élevée dans une famille de chasseurs, ou même de jardiniers. Mes parents n’étaient pas prêts à avoir un chevreuil chez eux. Et moi, je vivais dans un petit appartement pour célibataires au centre-ville de Winnipeg.

“Il était tard. Trop tard pour dépecer l’animal tout de suite. Alors, j’ai ouvert les fenêtres de mon appartement. Je me suis endormie dans mon sac de couchage. Le lendemain, j’ai tapé ‘Comment couper de la viande de chevreuil’ sur YouTube. Et je me suis mise à l’œuvre.”

Read
Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017
Daniel Bahuaud photo ‘Toute la francophonie nord-américaine est liée’: Le bédéiste québécois Jocelyn Jalette a rendu hommage à Louis Riel en visitant, le 8 novembre dernier, la tombe du Père du Manitoba. Riel a été pendu le 16 novembre 1885.
No Subscription Required

Riel, le lien entre les francos d’Amérique

Daniel Bahuaud de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press  5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Riel, le lien entre les francos d’Amérique

Daniel Bahuaud de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press  5 minute read Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017

Pour Jocelyn Jalette, bédéiste de Joliette, au Québec, pas besoin d’être métis, ou manitobain, ou encore francophone en milieu minoritaire pour apprécier le combat, le triomphe et la tragédie de Louis Riel. Et voici pourquoi.

Dans La République assassinée des Métis, la bande dessinée de Jocelyn Jalette qui vient tout juste d’être publiée aux Éditions du Phoenix (www.editionsduphoenix.com), des personnages fictifs côtoient Louis Riel et Gabriel Dumont, mais aussi les politiciens Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, Louis-Joseph Papineau et Honoré Mercier.

Une palette de personnages pour mieux placer la résistance des Métis dans un contexte francophone plus large, comme le souligne l’auteur de 47 ans :

“Les liens sont étroits entre la résistance des Métis, Louis Riel et les francophones du Québec. Surtout quand on se rappelle que la lutte pour assurer un statut d’égalité entre le français, l’anglais, et les cultures francophone et anglophone, c’est l’affaire de tous les francophones.”

Read
Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017
Map-based history of Canada a marvel
No Subscription Required

Map-based history of Canada a marvel

Reviewed by Douglas J. Johnston 3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Map-based history of Canada a marvel

Reviewed by Douglas J. Johnston 3 minute read Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017

If you like maps, you’ll like this book; if you like both maps and crisply recounted Canadian history, you’ll love it.

Adam Shoalts is the author of a previous Canadian bestseller, 2015’s Alone Against the North, which recounted his exploration of the muskeg and river wilderness that is the Hudson Bay Lowlands.

The maps of his second book are springboards for his accounts of how this country’s vast expanses were charted.

Shoalts believes maps have been fundamental in shaping our view of Canada. He supports this belief by offering up pivotal moments in our country’s history via stories built around 10 specific maps, most of which, in turn, are the product of specific explorations.

Read
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017
Jeff Roberson / The Associated Press Files In her book, Lisa Martino-Taylor writes about how the U.S. government secretly exposed people in Winnipeg to dangerous radiation.
No Subscription Required

Book details 1953 Cold War experiments on Winnipeg

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Book details 1953 Cold War experiments on Winnipeg

Carol Sanders 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 13, 2017

Winnipeg was duped into being a “guinea pig” for American chemical warfare experiments in 1953, but no one knows what effect it had on city residents, a University of Manitoba pharmacology professor emeritus says.

“It’s too late now to do anything about it or to know what health effects it had on people,” Frank LaBella said Thursday of the aerosol cloud of zinc cadmium sulphide that was sprayed in Winnipeg to test ways of distributing chemical and biological warfare agents.

The deceitful operation by the United States army came to light in 1980 and is back in the spotlight with the publication of a book by an American researcher that includes declassified information. Behind the Fog: How the U.S. Cold War Radiological Weapons Program Exposed Innocent Americans, by Lisa Martino-Taylor, details the testing carried out in cities in the U.S. and Winnipeg (which resembled target sites in the Soviet Union).

“Nobody knew what was going on,” LaBella said. In 1953, Winnipeg city council was told civil defence authorities were testing the effects of smoke over the city using “harmless fluorescent powder.”

Read
Friday, Oct. 13, 2017
Photo gracieuseté Carole Bellavance Le Choeur En Supplément’Air lors d’un concert au Grand Théâtre de Québec.
No Subscription Required

Traversant le Canada en 20 chansons

Manella Vila Nova 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Traversant le Canada en 20 chansons

Manella Vila Nova 4 minute read Saturday, Jul. 8, 2017

De La Rochelle à la Colombie-Britannique en passant par l’Acadie, le Québec, l’Ontario et les Prairies, voici le voyage que proposera la chorale québécoise En Supplément’Air dans la Cathédrale de Saint-Boniface à l’occasion du 150e anniversaire de la Confédération canadienne, le 11 juillet.

Le Chœur En Supplément’Air a été fondé en 2015 par Carole Bellavance, la directrice artistique de la chorale. “Cette année, le chœur compte 300 choristes de toute la province du Québec. Tous les étés, nous organisons une tournée avec une quarantaine d’entre eux. Nous sommes partis le 3 juillet pour un premier concert à Ottawa, puis nous nous rendrons à North Bay, Sault Sainte-Marie, Thunder Bay. Nous terminerons à Winnipeg le 11 juillet,” Bellavance a dit.

C’est la première fois que le chœur se déplace aussi loin à l’ouest du Canada. “Avec notre spectacle Le périple de la chanson francophone en Haute-Amérique, nous voulons faire valoir l’histoire de la chanson francophone au Canada à travers le temps. Nous avons choisi des chansons de partout pour mettre en valeur les régions. Le propos se prête bien à la grande aventure de la francophonie canadienne. J’ai profité du 150e anniversaire de la Confédération pour faire vivre aux choristes les chansons francophones canadiennes, et pas seulement québécoises.”

Harmonisé et orchestré par François Couture, le spectacle met la culture francophone au premier plan. “La culture francophone a été apportée de l’Europe. Pour illustrer cela, notre première chanson s’intitule Je pars à l’autre bout du monde. Au début du spectacle, on se sent vraiment à La Rochelle. Ensuite, on arrive dans les Maritimes avec des chansons qui reflètent l’histoire de l’Acadie, puis du Québec, et le développement de l’Ontario. Nous suivons le trajet de la chanson francophone, d’est en ouest.”

Read
Saturday, Jul. 8, 2017
Gavin Boutroy Photo Della Mansoff, le chef Vincent Tacan, Leona Noel et Toni Pashe examinent la maquette de Gabriel Stacey-Chartrand.
No Subscription Required

‘Cette terre n’a fait aucun mal’

Gavin Boutroy de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

‘Cette terre n’a fait aucun mal’

Gavin Boutroy de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 5 minute read Saturday, May. 13, 2017

Le 3 mai, une caravane d’étudiants en architecture paysagiste de l’Université du Manitoba a été accueillie devant le bâtiment d’autogouvernement de la Nation Dakota de Sioux Valley. Ils ont présenté à un comité du conseil de bande leurs plans pour l’aménagement d’un centre de guérison sur les lieux de l’École industrielle indienne de Brandon.

L’École industrielle indienne de Brandon était un pensionnat autochtone où, de 1895 à 1972, des enfants autochtones étaient éduqués par divers ordres religieux selon la politique d’assimilation du gouvernement canadien. Le chef de la Nation Dakota de Sioux Valley, Vincent Tacan, indique qu’il y a grand nombre de survivants de l’ancien pensionnat dans sa Nation.

“Nous avons besoin de guérir. Nous sentons les effets intergénérationnels des pensionnats autochtones. Essayer d’aller de l’avant avant de guérir serait inutile.”

Le Sud-ouest du Manitoba n’a aucun centre de guérison avec un environnement approprié aux cultures autochtones. Le chef Tacan note que les membres de sa Nation en besoin de traitement doivent se rendre à Regina, ou encore en Alberta.

Read
Saturday, May. 13, 2017
Fight for survival in 1542
No Subscription Required

Gripping drama Elle brings outdoor hardship to PTE's indoor stage

Randall King 3 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Gripping drama Elle brings outdoor hardship to PTE's indoor stage

Randall King 3 minute read Friday, Feb. 24, 2017

The medium of theatre doesn't necessarily lend itself to a story of survival in the wilderness.

There's a reason The Revenant was a movie and not a Broadway play.

And yet the historical drama Elle, an adaptation of the Governor General’s Award-winning novel by Douglas Glover of the same name by Toronto actress Severn Thompson, manages to be an engaging, gripping piece of work... even in the civilized Prairie Theatre Exchange environs in Portage Place.

Over the course of 90 minutes (without intermission), Thompson connects us to an extraordinary character, based on Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval, a headstrong young Frenchwoman tantalized to a trip to Canada in 1542 by exotic tales of naked natives and strange customs.

Read
Friday, Feb. 24, 2017
MANITO MÉDIA PHOTO Jules Desjarlais: ‘Au pays des Michifs, ce sera bien plus qu’un aperçu sur nos chasseurs, pêcheurs et trappeurs. C’est la présentation d’un mode de vie.’
No Subscription Required

Saint-Laurent la télé en 2017

Par Daniel Bahuaud 5 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

Saint-Laurent la télé en 2017

Par Daniel Bahuaud 5 minute read Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016

Les pêcheurs, chasseurs et trappeurs métis de Saint-Laurent seront bient¥t connus au Québec gr¢ce une série documentaire produite pour le Canal D. De plus, la caméra se posera sur la culture métisse. Bienvenue Au pays des Michifs.

Ce qui étonne Jules Desjarlais n'est pas que Manito Média, l'entreprise de production bonifacienne fondée par Charles et Patrick Clément, ait réussi convaincre le Canal D commander une série documentaire portant sur les Métis de Saint-Laurent. C'est que les Métis se soient laissés photographier par les caméras télé!

Jules Desjarlais en est persuadé: "Nous, les Métis, on est pas mal gêné. Notre vie privée, on y tient. Mais tranquillement, dans les dernières décennies, le public respecte pas mal plus notre culture. Chez nous, c'est l'exposition sur les Métis présentée entre 2004 et juillet 2015 (au National Museum of the American Indian, un des musées du Smithsonian Institution de Washington), qui a fait une différence énorme. On est plus portés dire "oui" quand on nous propose des projets comme la série Au pays des Michifs. On s'intéresse faire connaître notre culture, la faire respecter, pour que les gens nous connaissent plus."

Résultat: Gerry Bruce et Roland Bruce, Norbert Langellier et son fils, Charles et Langellier, ainsi que Laurent Dumont, figureront parmi les chasseurs, pêcheurs et trappeurs présentés dans l'émission, en tournage depuis l'automne 2015. Le natif de Saint-Laurent, vétéran de plusieurs productions hollywoodiennes, notamment la série Docteur Quinn, femme médecin et le film Terrain miné (On Deadly Ground) sera le narrateur et présentateur de la série.

Read
Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016
Wilgis Agossa Autour de l’arbre de vie
No Subscription Required

‘Mais rien ne dépasse la paix’: une collaboration inédite

Ruby Irene Pratka de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Preview
No Subscription Required

‘Mais rien ne dépasse la paix’: une collaboration inédite

Ruby Irene Pratka de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015

La salle est pleine de femmes d’un certain âge. Elles discutent, se servent du café, échangent des nouvelles autour d’une bonne soupe. Quand Marie-Catherine Lemoto se met à chanter, elles se taisent. Elle chante une plainte en Sangö, sa langue natale, une langue de la République centrafricaine.

La chanson raconte l’histoire d’un homme africain qui part à la recherche d’une vie plus stable, laissant sa famille derrière lui. C’est une histoire qui résonne profondément pour plusieurs femmes autour de la table. Quand la chanson prend fin, la voisine de Marie-Catherine la remercie en langue ojibwa : “Migwetch.”

Marie-Catherine Lemoto fait partie du projet Autour de l’arbre de vie, un échange culturel et artistique entre sept grands-mères métisses de la région de Winnipeg et sept grand-mères africaines, pour la plupart des réfugiées originaires de la République démocratique du Congo, de Centrafrique et du Burundi. Il s’agit d’une initiative de l’Union nationale métisse Saint-Joseph du Manitoba avec l’appui de Patrimoine canadien et le soutien logistique de l’Accueil francophone.

Chaque semaine, les femmes se réunissent pour une session de partage qui aboutit souvent sur un projet d’art visuel. Dolorès Contré-Migwams, l’animatrice, ouvre la session en battant un tambour en cuir. Les sessions débutent avec un tour de table où les participantes partagent des chansons, des récits ou des anecdotes sur leur adaptation au Manitoba.

Read
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015