In Winnipeg, a vacant store is a symbol of Indigenous renewal
After the Hudson’s Bay Co. department store shuttered its hulking, 650,000-plus-square-foot building in downtown Winnipeg in 2020, Peatr Thomas was asked to replicate one of his murals in the empty windows.
The Inninew and Anishnaabe artist at first hesitated. If any entity casts a colonial shadow in Canada, it is the Hudson’s Bay Co.
Established in 1670 by the king of England, the HBC existed for centuries as a fur trading enterprise that upended the lives of First Nations as it aggressively expanded into what would later become Canada. Mr. Thomas didn’t want to be affiliated.
At the same time, the flagship store in Winnipeg looms large - physically and in historical relevance. Mr. Thomas saw an opportunity to share his vision of a “new future,” he says, “built on truth.”
Today his vibrant mural, “Aski Pimachi Iwew,” reflects back the story of the earth’s renewal. Animals painted in black, upon a red background representing dawn, depict the seven ancestor teachings of “Turtle Island,” what many Indigenous people call North America: love, wisdom, respect, courage, honesty, humility, and truth.
It’s accompanied by text written by his mother, a residential school survivor:
A new sunrise with the new moon.
After a time of
