Winnipeg, Manitoba - The prairie city is a hub for exploring Indigenous artistic expression

The giant Niimama sculpture symbolizes rebirth and hope.
COURTESY OF TRAVEL MANITOBA

I’m with a group on a cycling tour riding alongside the Assiniboine River in central Winnipeg when one of our guides, Justin Bear, asks us to pause: “As we go, try to imagine the people. Picture them here on the river. Thousands of years of history happened here. People were meeting here, sitting here: Try to feel that.”

We stop at a park on the site of the former Upper Fort Garry to see a 120-metre steel wall sculpture, etched with images of people and animals that take us back to the site’s history. We ride past the Canadian Museum of Human Rights where, inside, visitors gaze at an exquisite 26-foot-tall beaded octopus bag. (The Métis would carry pipes, tobacco and other supplies in their much smaller octopus bags.) We get off our bikes at Niimaamaa, a giant sculpture of a pregnant woman facing east to symbolize rebirth and hope. “I am a proud Anishinaabe,” says Adrian Alphonso, another of our guides on the Clear Paths tour. “I am able to finally say that I am proud … and installations like these really ignite that.”

That sense of pride and healing is on display across Winnipeg, which is a hub of Indigenous art. A mural near The Forks, a historic gathering place, honours Jackson Beardy, one of the Indian Group of Seven – a group of Indigenous artists known formally as the Professional National Indian Artists Incorporation. Androgyny, a large-scale painting from Norval Morrisseau, another of the seven artists, welcomes visitors to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Later this year, the gallery’s Inuit Art Centre will open to showcase the world’s largest collection of Inuit art.

Upper Fort Garry's 120-metre heritage wall,
a sculpture that contains etchings of people and animals.
KRISTHINE GUERERO/TOURISM WINNIPEG

Buildings around the city are adorned with murals, including fancy shawl dancers on a hotel in the North End and a young woman’s face – with a feather in her hair and hand over her mouth – across from City Hall. Star blankets painted on half a dozen walls all over the city honour missing and murdered Indigenous women in Manitoba and beyond.

At the end of a day exploring Indigenous art, we meet again at The Forks and listen to Anishinaabe musician Leonard Sumner sing of lost love, Northern Lights and hope for the future. The performance is just one more creative delight hidden in plain sight in Winnipeg.

How to get there
You can reach Winnipeg via a direct flight from most major Canadian cities. Tourism Manitoba’s visitor centre at The Forks has maps and an interactive trip planner to plot specific points of interest and how to get there.

What to bring
Comfortable walking shoes, a hat and sun-safe clothes to protect you from the hot prairie sun, as well as a camera to capture the art you see around the city.

Where to stay
Inn at The Forks is a stylish hotel just steps from the Oodena Celebration Circle, the thriving Forks Market, the two rivers and walking and bike paths. It has a great restaurant.

*BY JENNIFER ALLFORD, SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL