Niimaamaa, The Forks

Authors

  • Honoure Black

Keywords:

Treaty One, Winnipeg, The Forks, Niimaamaa, decolonization

Abstract

Niimaamaais located on the South Point path, which is located along the most southern point of The Forks in downtown Winnipeg. In 2018, South Point was renamed by Elders, Clarence and Barbara Nepinak, who were offered asemaa (tobacco) to uncover the name for the path, now also known as Niizhoziibean or ‘the place we come together’. Here, directly on the path, Niimaamaa stands as a colossal thirty-foot tall sculpture made of polished painted steel, copper, and core ten metal. Niimaamaa actively participates as a symbol of decolonization in space and place. Her site-specific location (re)minds, (re)tells, and (re)maps The Forks for visitors who seek to learn about the past or see themselves in the future.

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Author Biography

Honoure Black

Honoure Black is settler woman, mother, daughter and partner, living in Winnipeg, Treaty One Territory. She is a PhD Candidate in Design and Planning at the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Architecture and a 2021-2024 SSHRC Doctoral Scholarship recipient for her research concerning public art in Canada. Her dissertation is currently titled: Insurgent Public Art, Decolonizing Settler Colonial Urban Space in Winnipeg, Treaty One. Honoure is also a sessional instructor for both the School of Art and the Faculty of Architecture, often teaching courses in art history, environmental design, landscape theory, and interdisciplinary research methods. In her spare time, Honoure loves to garden, camp, hike, and travel with her family.

Her latest publications are “Re-Creating This Place: Indigenous Public Art At The Centre Of Turtle Island”, co-authored with Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair in HOLDING GROUND: NUIT BLANCHE AND OTHER RUPTURES, Edited by Julie Nagam and Janine Marchessault and “Decolonizing the Design Process with Five Indigenous Land-Based Paradigms”, co-authored with Shawn Bailey and Lancelot Coar, Toronto: Canadian Architect, May 2022, v.67, n.3.

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Published

2023-02-15

How to Cite

Black, H. (2023). Niimaamaa, The Forks. At The Forks, 1(1). Retrieved from https://ojs.lib.umanitoba.ca/index.php/forks/article/view/919