Plans for new Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre include elders' residence, community centre
Old building at 45 Robinson to be demolished this month to pave way for 24/7 youth safe space, elders' housing
Plans for a new friendship centre in Winnipeg, which will include a community meeting space and a residence for elders, were unveiled Thursday, to replace a longstanding cultural hub for Indigenous people in the city that has been shuttered for years.
In 2019, the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre at 45 Robinson St. was found in shambles, and hasn't been usable since.
"Our urban community has long expressed how much they've missed the friendship centre here in Winnipeg as a place to gather and a place to access the supportive hub of resources," Tammy Christensen, the executive director of the Ma Mawi Chi Itata Centre, said at a news conference announcing the new plans on Thursday.
In July 2019, Ma Mawi Chi Itata and several other organizations came together to work on restoring and reviving a friendship centre.
The Indian and Métis Friendship Centre was shut down in 2018, after the Manitoba Association of Friendship Centres suspended its funding the year before, citing issues including a failure to apply for funding on time, as well as complaints from the community, staff and board members.
The shuttered building was then found to have been badly vandalized in early 2019.
In February 2019, members of the Bear Clan citizen group discovered the back door of the friendship centre was left open, and the building had extensive frost and water damage from burst pipes. Copper wire was stripped throughout, toilets were torn from walls, ceiling tiles were ripped down, and there were holes in all the walls.
The building was vandalized again the following month.
That old building will be demolished later this month to pave the way for a new centre, which will be built in three phases.
The first will be the new Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre itself, followed by a community centre and then an elders' residence.
The spaces will also include a 24/7 safe space for youth and a bingo hall, according to Rachel Sansregret, the executive director of the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre, which incorporated last December and is now a federally registered charity.
"Our overall goal is to revitalize this once-vibrant space as a home for our community and a space where safety is paramount, and where everyone from all backgrounds and all communities are welcome to gather and thrive," Sansregret said.
The centre's board has taken a number of steps to ensure the mistakes of the past aren't repeated, Sansregret said.
"We have re-established our governance with great care to ensure that it is structured in a way that the tragedy that befell the previous centre will in no way ever possibly be able to happen to the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre," she said.
The board is pursuing capital funding for the project and hopes soon to provide services to Canada's largest urban Indigenous community, but construction can't start until that initial money is raised.
"Over 102,000 [people] that we can't wait to hopefully be able to engage with in some respect at the new centre," Sansregret said.
While fundraising and construction is ongoing, some friendship centre activities will occur outdoors, Sansregret said, including land-based education centred around Indigenous culture and wellness, including classes on traditional gardening practices for food and medicine.
"It's a very exciting journey," said Damon Johnston, who serves as the president of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg and is the secretary for the Winnipeg Indigenous Friendship Centre's board of directors.
"The journey with the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre of Winnipeg has given so much to this community over so many years, and now we are able ... to continue that journey, and as I said, strengthen that journey."
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