Indigenous artists in Winnipeg’s inner city are working to pass on traditions, knowledge to younger generations

At the Indigenous Arts and Cultural Centre, on Laura Street just off of Logan Avenue, community members and artists of all disciplines are coming together to make sure inner city youth can reclaim traditional arts and practices.

“Hopefully, I meet up with some young folks that are interested in stones, and I could teach them a few tricks,” said Joe Spence, a stone carver from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation.

Spence is one of many artists who will be teaching children and youth at the centre.

Spence said he struggled with substance abuse in the past. A stone carver of 50 years, he said it’s important for people of all ages to have places to go so they don’t stay idle and fall into activities that can lead to addictions. He said carving has been a source of sobriety for him.

The 65-year-old carver said it was important to him to pass on his knowledge now, as he has less days ahead of him than he has behind him.

“I would like to leave something for the children to look back to,” he said.

Beverly Burkard, executive director for Winnipeg Inner Missions, who runs the centre, says it will offer after-school programming of all kinds.

“This is going to be a land-based program that will be driven by the natural occuring activities of the season. So we hope that our kids are fileting fish and smoking, tanning hides and doing all the things that naturally you would do in a season,” said Burkard.

The centre is equipped with an elders room, so children and youth can interact and seek advice from different elders who have signed on to support the programs. Around the building is an outdoor stage, sacred fire pits and gardens growing all around the property.

“We have the sweetgrass, we have the tobacco, we have the cedar, we have the sage,” said Burdock.

“We want individuals who live in this neighbourhood, people who live in this city to have the opportunity to experience their culture and their tradition as naturally and as authentically as we can.”

The centre has been partnering with multiple artists like Spence, including birch bark biting artist Pat Bruderer and others.

“Artists have been stepping up and saying, I’d like to teach this. And I’d like to teach that,” said Burkard. “We’ve got artists that are painters and beaders and sewers, and everybody is just saying, ‘I’ll come and teach that.’ And so it’s going to be a hub for people to learn and to share.”

Adding, “The culture’s been lost. Traditions have been lost. People are working so hard to salvage language and traditional knowledge and to give that opportunity to Indigenous people.”

Jedrick Thorassie knows first-hand about the power of art.

“I went through a really hard time in my life. Really hard time. I lost my family and I know this sounds really cliché, but art saved my life.”

Thorassie, a visual artist from Tadoule Lake First Nation, said the lack of inner city programming for Indigenous youth is a major problem in Winnipeg he’s experienced first-hand.

“They don’t have people or places to go where they can learn tradition or their culture or language. I know it’s like that. So things like this are very important,” said Thorassie.

Like Spence, Thorassie uses his art to keep from being idle.

“It keeps me busy, it keeps my mind busy, I’m not in it for the money,” he said.

“I get to be myself. I was in the work industry, I know how it is. But being an artist, I have total freedom.”

Burkard said the goal for the program is to invite Indigenous families to experience what prairie life was like as Indigenous people experienced it before colonization.

“Have it be a place that is safe and is welcoming and lets kids just be kids doing what they should have always been able to do if it hadn’t been stolen from them,” said Burkard.

The centre’s community hopes to open its doors to the public at the end of September.