Local Anishinaabe writer Professor Niigaan Sinclair guides you through Winnipeg’s Indigenous history and community from healing ceremonies at The Forks to Bannock pizza at Feast Café.
Winnipeg, the capital city of Canada’s Manitoba province, marks its 150th birthday in 2024, but its history goes back much further than that. Both archaeological findings and oral histories passed down through generations indicate that Indigenous peoples have been inhabiting the area for nearly 6,000 years.
Today, visitors flock to Winnipeg for its world-renowned museums, festivals, parks and the welcoming spirit reflected in the province’s license plate motto: “Friendly Manitoba”. But for millennia, the area now known as Winnipeg — the city was incorporated and named in 1873 — was a hub where Indigenous nations like the Cree, Ojibwe, Dakota, Ojibwe-Cree and Dene would gather to hold ceremonies, trade goods and share knowledge.
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Niigaan Sinclair was named Columnist of the Year in 2018 at Canada’s National Newspaper Awards for his work at the Winnipeg Free Press. He and his father, former Canadian senator Murray Sinclair – a First Nations lawyer who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission – were named to Maclean‘s Power List of the 50 most influential people in Canada in 2022. Sinclair currently has a national bestselling book titled Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre.
We asked Niigaan Sinclair, professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Manitoba, to tell us the best places where visitors can explore Winnipeg’s Indigenous history. For Sinclair, a member of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) Nation, Winnipeg remains an epicentre of Indigenous values. And because the city is home to the largest Indigenous population in Canada, where one in five people are Indigenous, he believes it is ground zero for reconciliation between cultures.
“Name me a place where reconciliation has been in activity the longest, and it’s Manitoba,” says Sinclair, noting the first of the numbered treaties (Treaty 1) between the Canadian government and Canada’s Indigenous people was signed in 1871 at Lower Fort Garry, 20 miles north of Winnipeg. “I do all the things that I do because I think Winnipeg is a remarkable place.”
Here is Sinclair’s guide to Indigenous Winnipeg.
1. Best place to experience an Indigenous celebration: The Forks
Since being designated a national historic site in 1974, The Forks, a public event space in downtown Winnipeg, has become the city’s number-one tourist attraction, welcoming four million visitors a year and hosting a wealth of community celebrations and recreational activities. It’s also where extensive archaeological investigations have proved that several Aboriginal groups lived here thousands of years ago.
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Winnipeg is sometimes playfully called “Winterpeg”, so expect freezing temps in the winter. Sinclair, however, encourages embracing Biboon; the Anishinaabe word for winter. “We really enjoy our summers, but we are very dedicated to winter,” he says. “It makes up the culture of the city.”
Two winter suggestions from Sinclair are the Festival du Voyageur in February, which celebrates the history of Francophones, Métis and First Nations in Manitoba; and getting out on the Nestaweya River Trail where Winnipeggers gather to skate, walk, bike, cross country ski and snowshoe.Called the Forks because it’s situated at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, the area remains a place of importance to Winnipeg’s Indigenous community; in particular the Oodena Celebration Circle where events such as Canada’s National Indigenous Peoples Day (21 June), winter and summer solstices, healing ceremonies and the recent National Day of Truth and Reconciliation – more commonly known as Orange Shirt Day (30 September) – are held.
2. Best place to learn about the Métis Nation: Saint Boniface
The Métis – one of Canada’s three recognised Indigenous peoples – are a distinct Indigenous people with both First Nations and Euro settler (mostly French) ancestry that arose in the late 1700s in Western Canada. Today, it is estimated there are 450,000 Métis Nation citizens in Canada, with approximately 48,000 living in Winnipeg.
Perhaps the most famous Métis historical figure is Louis Riel, born in Winnipeg’s Saint Boniface neighbourhood in 1844. The heart of Manitoba’s Francophone community and the Francophone capital of Western Canada, Saint Boniface is located directly across the Red River from the Forks and downtown Winnipeg; accessible by walking across the beautiful Esplanade Riel Footbridge.
Riel was a central figure in the 1869-70 Red River Resistance that saw Metis people challenge the nascent Canadian government in an ill-fated bid for self-determination. Riel advocated for the culture of the Métis people and challenged Canadian government policies regarding language, religion and land rights, ultimately resulting in his execution for treason in 1885. In 2016, the government of Manitoba recognised Riel as the first leader of Manitoba.
Riel’s gravesite is on the grounds of Saint Boniface Cathedral, built in 1832. “I spend a lot of time visiting Riel’s grave,” says Sinclair. “At least yearly, I go there to pay my respects and lay some tobacco. To understand how Manitoba and Winnipeg came to be, you have to know the story of the Métis and Louis Riel.”
3. Best green space: The Leaf
Located in the 1,100-acre Assiniboine Park – the largest park in Winnipeg – The Leaf is a horticultural attraction that houses four indoor plant biomes and more than 12,000 trees, shrubs and flowers from around the world. It is home to Canada’s tallest indoor waterfall and a beautiful butterfly garden.
The Leaf is also where Wab Kinew was sworn in as the first First Nations premier of a province in Canadian history in 2023 during a ceremony that honoured the seven Indigenous nations in Manitoba, along with his 15-member cabinet; eight of whom are people of colour, seven are female or non-binary, five are Indigenous and two are LGBTQ.
