DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
La Vérendrye Park
A historic decolonization and community-building project
CONCEPTUAL MASTER PLAN
The La Vérendrye Park development project in Winnipeg is currently under development.
Stay tuned for the project’s evolution and discover the conceptual master plan that was developed by ft3 and Narratives Inc. in collaboration with the Compagnie de La Vérendrye and an Indigenous Advisory Committee. Don’t hesitate to contact us for more details.
CALL TO INDIGENOUS ARTISTS
La Compagnie de La Vérendrye is launching an open call to Indigenous artists for the creation of a new public art installation in La Vérendrye Park to counterbalance the existing statue in the park. The new work will be developed as part of the park’s future development, which represents a shift towards a more inclusive narrative that celebrates Indigenous resilience, reclamation and truth.
Deadline for submission: October 30, 2024
LA VÉRENDRYE PARK
La Vérendrye Park, created in 1938 in St. Boniface to commemorate the 200th anniversary of La Vérendrye’s arrival at The Forks, is a green space on the edge of Taché Avenue across from St. Boniface Hospital and next to the Promenade Taché and The Loop walking trails.
La Compagnie de La Vérendrye, as a living history group and a stakeholder in the park, wishes to enhance the park to promote Manitoba’s francophone heritage, ensure its future in a spirit of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and develop the park’s tourism potential given its location.
ENGAGEMENT TIMELINE
Various stakeholders throughout the community were invited to participate in an informal discussion about the existing park use and potentials for development. Between the dates of March 16 and March 24, 2022, in-person and virtual stakeholder sessions took place, conducted primarily in French, to discuss the uses of the park within the community and its meaning to various local organizations. The sessions were scheduled with specific stakeholder groups within the following sectors: Tourism, Culture and Community, and Education. An online survey was also launched, via La Compagnie’s Facebook page and La Liberté, for the public’s feedback. Ninety responses were received.
Over the summer, the design of a concept plan began in a process that addressed opinions, ideas and visions expressed during the stakeholder sessions and online survey. At the beginning of 2023, La Compagnie de La Vérendrye assembled an Indigenous Advisory Committee to guide the process of how the park addresses truth and reconciliation.
CONCEPT
The vision for the La Vérendrye Park site enhancement project master plan is based on the concept of weaving the stories of the fur trade, the Métis community and the First Nations peoples, and is dedicated to teaching, contemplation and celebration.
La Vérendrye Park sits on the east side of Taché Avenue between Dollard Boulevard and Despins Street – a passageway for visitors who come from across the Red River or elsewhere in Winnipeg and make their trek to the St. Boniface Hospital right across the street, or into the St. Boniface community. Histories and stories begin to weave together as people cross each other’s paths.
The concept of weaving is seen in the traditional crafting of the Métis Sash and the traditional art form of Ojibwe finger weaving. Jessica Outram, a Métis poet, describes these Indigenous art forms as a metaphorical form of storytelling. The weaving of threads represents cultural change, the impact of one culture on another. A new thread is a new life, a new family member, a new beginning into the emergence of one’s own story, identity, and history. Similarly, weaving is a concept that can be applied to the fur trade era and its coordinated dance of trade routes, portaging, and traversed trails. This new era was the cornerstone of the French-Canadian military officer, fur trader, and explorer La Vérendrye, whose statue is erected in the centre of the park.
The proposed vision for the park’s evolution explores this notion of weaving, threading together the lost stories of the Métis and First Nations peoples, as well as the true histories of the fur trade era. Each route within the park weaves towards the park’s entryways, allowing visitors to explore the space and converge to the centre of the park. The centre features a pavilion overlooking the La Vérendrye statue and includes a series of storytelling signage that explores the contemporary and hist