SEPTEMBER 3 -12 PRIDE
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MONUMENTAL DECISION
Local artists and landscape architects are in the running to design the LGBTQ2+ National Monument, which is being created as a condition of the LGBT Purge settlement reached in 2018. Two Winnipeg-based teams are on a shortlist of five teams that were invited to submit design proposals. Winnipeg’s Team Wreford is made up of award- winning performance, installation and visual artists Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan; Indigenous & Two-Spirited People subject- matter expert and advisor Albert McLeod, and Public City Architecture. Team SOM is made up of filmmaker and artist Noam Gonick, award-winning multi- disciplinary Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore, landscape architecture firm HTFC Planning and Design and New York-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the architecture firm that designed One World Trade Center. Design proposals were due in August, and the general public will have a chance to see them sometime this fall. The LGBT Purge Fund is providing $8 million for the monument, to be erected in Ottawa, in a prominent location that includes space for large public events. The 2018 settlement called for funds to be set aside for “reconciliation and memorialization measures,” and those funds are considered a gift from victims of the Purge. The national monument is expected to be completed by 2025.
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“Queer history and queer contributions to human rights have always been undertold and no one really knows about it or learns about it,” says Vijayanathan. “We’re hoping this is an opportunity to start and continue that conversation and ensure that queer history is documented and available and accessible to everyone across the country and globally.” Vijayanathan, who has 15 years of experience advocating for historically marginalized and underrepresented communities, has also been working to offer internal education to CMHR staff. “We’re looking at what we need to do to ensure that all staff are informed and inclusive and supportive of any visitor that comes into the institution. That includes not misgendering people to acknowledging that different people exist in different ways. “We want people to walk away (from the CMHR) feeling empowered to make change happen rather than disempowered. That’s our goal right now — to create those brave spaces to have those conversations, both for staff and for visitors.”
“It’s good to remind Canadians that this did happen and that there were pioneers that underwent a tremendous journey and struggle to defeat this policy and to change the way these types of workplace policies are in our country,” says Harrison. “Many of us now benefit from their struggle and that needs acknowledgment and celebration and reflection.” Planning is still in the early stages for the 2024 exhibit. Harrison says a tremendous number of physical artifacts exist to draw from. The CMHR is planning for events leading up to the opening, including a panel of survivors talking about their experiences. Having joined the CMHR around the same time as Harrison, Haran Vijayanathan has been working with Winnipeg Pride as well as developing a Rainbow Equity council to solidify the CMHR’s relationship with the queer community. He feels it’s important to acknowledge that there is still hurt in the community. “It’s going to take some time and ongoing conversations and relationship building,” he says. “That’s the priority.”
Happy Pride The WCB is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace today and every day.
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