It’s a sacred and spiritual place situated on the corner of Higgins and Main, but the Circle of Life Thunderbird House is in dire need of repair.
“When you look at it from the outside, it’s in a bit of a state of disrepair,” said Damon Johnston, the president of the Aboriginal Council of Winnipeg and chair of the board working to fix the facility.
“It’s been under considerable stress from people who are on the streets.”
Thunderbird House opened about 23 years ago as a spiritual place for Indigenous ceremonies, gatherings, traditions, and healings. The roof is designed to look like an eagle spreading its wings.
“When Thunderbird House was in its heyday, non-Indigenous Canadians were coming here in fair numbers and mixing with us and learning with us and actually liking a lot of the things we were sharing with them,” Johnston said.
“And to me that’s the real truth and reconciliation.”
While programming is still held in the facility, including traditional drumming, beading and health services, the facility is in rough shape physically. During the pandemic, Johnston says, people broke into the building, smashed out the windows, wrote graffiti on the walls, and even stole copper off the roof. As a result, they were forced to board up the windows and erect a chain-link fence around the facility.
But now plans are underway to restore the facility. David Morrison, the executive director of Thunderbird House, says nearly $3 million in funding from Indigenous Services Canada will allow them to restore and repair the facility, which he says is also damaged on the interior from people breaking in.
“It’s the wish of the people that this place live again. (Or) that the bird flies — the fence we’re going to put around it, we’re going to make it try to look like a nest around the bird,” Nepinak explained. “So that the bird flies and people feel comfortable coming here anytime.”
The funding will also go towards building a sweat lodge outside the facility and a green space, complementing the recent additions of a new public washroom in the area and housing for people transitioning out of homelessness.
The board also hopes to have the Sabe Peacewalkers patrolling the area, to provide support to the community and protect facility and those in the area.
Rylee Nepinak is the co-founder of Anishiative and works with the Thunderbird House board of directors, and is also the co-founder of the Sabe Peacewalkers. He says fixing the facility is crucial.
“Coming from me, someone who grew up down the street on the other side of the tracks, to me, it is running and being back to its original spirit is very important,” Nepinak told Global News.
“This place is like a grandmother, that’s how I view it. And we need to take care of her because like our grandmothers, they take care of us.”
The goal is to have the renovations complete by 2025.
“This is on sacred ground, it’s a sacred place, and it’s starting to breathe again,” Morrison said.
“The patient has been given some oxygen and I’m so happy.”
While funding is in place for physical repairs to the building, Thunderbird House currently has no operational funding, something for which the board is trying to advocate.
“You can put all the bricks and mortar into this and make it the most beautiful-looking place, but you need people with a kind heart inside to make a difference, to spread that love, and I think we’re ready to do that,” Nepinak said.
“We’re not a church, there’s no collection taken here. We’re not selling a service,” Morrison said.
“So anything that has to come in has to be asked for. So I’m asking. Please help us.”
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