The Blog

Follow along as we work towards systems change and help create better outcomes for kids in our community.

New Website!

February 05, 2019

We are very excited to share our new website with you! We have been working with Relish New Brand Experience over the past 6 months to completely redesign the look, function, and content of our website, and we’re so happy that it’s finally complete!

This redesign was undertaken for a few reasons – one of which was to make sure that the project was easy to understand and access, as the work we do can sometimes be complex and complicated. This meant breaking things down into easy to understand categories, and taking a large amount of information and making it easily digestible.

We also wanted to make sure that the website provided an interactive and engaging experience, which is something that we have always used our social media accounts to achieve in the past through photos, videos, and project updates. Social media is a great tool, but if not checked regularly (or at all for those who do not use social media) then sometimes really important content can get missed. To solve this, we included an app on our front page that compiles all of our social media content in one place, so you can simply visit our website to see exactly what’s happening with the project at any given time.

Another exciting new tool on our website is one that Relish has created for us in order to share and archive our research documents. It’s very user-friendly and it allows anyone to access the reports, tools, and documents we have published in order to share our learnings and inform future policy and work done in these areas of focus.

As for the new look of the website, we feel that it reflects the characteristics of the project: bold, innovative, and community-driven. You’ll be seeing more of this aesthetic in our forthcoming prototype documents and future materials.

We would love to hear your feedback on our website! Feel free to get in touch with us on social media or through our contact form to let us know what you think!

Land Acknowledgement

The Winnipeg Boldness Project resides in and works on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), Anishinabewaki (Oji-Cree), Dené, Michif Piyii (Métis), Nêhiyawak (Cree), and Očhéthi Sakowin (Dakota). We recognize that we have benefited from and continue to benefit from colonization on the Treaty 1, Treaty 3, and Treaty 5 Territories.

It is important to also acknowledge how we benefit in this territory at the cost to Indigenous Peoples. Winnipeg has been drinking clean water for over a century via an aqueduct from Shoal Lake. In 1917, 3000 acres of Treaty 3 was declared property of the city of Winnipeg to build the aqueduct. This aqueduct was built over ancestral burial ground, to build these structures, the ancestors were disinterred and reburied. Construction of the aqueduct changed the waters significantly, causing the peninsula to become a man-made island. This now isolated Nation faced many challenges as a direct result from this aqueduct; Necessities like water, groceries, schools, and mail were only accessible via the dangerous trek to the mainland. Lives of adults and children were lost crossing to and from the mainland. Freedom Road, an all-weather road access finally opened summer 2019, over a century after displacement. This road, a testament to the success of Indigenous-led solutions, helps bring materials to build schools and a water treatment plant.

“I always think of it, even when I turn on the tap I’m like this comes from our community and this water probably contains our ancestors and the spirits of our ancestor. I think about the hardships of the people from Shoal Lake 40 who have gone through so many things for the benefit of Winnipeg’s drinking water,” says Angelina McLeod.1

Another benefit we reap in Winnipeg at a cost to Indigenous Peoples and land is the Hydro Electricity Development in Treaty 5. To optimize water movement for greatest power production the Province of Manitoba increased waterflow by creating the Churchill River Diversion in 1976. The modification of the waterflow caused flooding, shoreline erosion, and changes to water quality. This destruction of habitat has caused disruption to waterway travel, fishing, and hunting.

  1. https://www.aptnnews.ca/facetoface/spirits-of-our-ancestor-shoal-lake-40-is-rectifying-a-century-of-hardships/