After complaints it could damage a mural honouring one of the country’s most well-known Indigenous artists, construction workers are moving a basketball hoop from an inner-city park in Winnipeg — just hours after it was installed.
The mural covers an exterior wall of the Indigenous Family Centre on Selkirk Avenue and features a painting in honour of Jackson Beardy, a Manitoba born artist who was a member of the famed Indian Group of Seven.
The mural overlooks a public space known as Powers Park, which has been undergoing a major facelift that includes the construction of a basketball court for neighbourhood youth. However, the basketball hoop was to be installed just inches from the mural wall.
‘We have to do something about it’
When a community member noticed the construction, they posted a photo to Facebook on Sunday night. Before long, the post garnered dozens of responses, many saying the mural could be obstructed or even damaged.
“Most of it was saying, ‘This is important to us. We have to do something about it,'” said Michael Yellowwing Kannon, a member of the city’s Indigenous community and the Idle No More movement.
Michael Yellowwing Kannon said he approached the construction company who installed the basketball hoop and they agreed to move it. (Tim Fontaine)
On Monday morning, Kannon approached a supervisor at the construction site and explained the significance of the painting to the community. Just hours later, workers began carefully extracting the basketball hoop.
“I’m really glad that we were able to just talk to them face-to-face and say, ‘Listen, this is a problem that has to be addressed,'” Kannon said.
CBC News called Nelson River Construction and an employee confirmed the company is working on that site but said only the supervisor could comment on what’s going to happen to the basketball hoop. The supervisor has yet to return CBC’s call.
Safest place for the basketball hoop
However, city councillor Ross Eadie addressed the issue on Facebook, saying that plans for the basketball hoop on the mural wall go back to 2015 and that the community was consulted.
“The hoop could have been oriented toward Selkirk Avenue or the backlane, but there would be too much danger of someone getting hit by a motor vehicle,” Eadie wrote, adding that neighbourhood kids have already been playing sports in the park without incident.
“Ultimately a number of people are deciding before the basketball hoop is installed that the kids are going to be hitting the wall with the mural on it. To date this mural has not been damaged by kids playing basketball or ball hockey.”
‘Peace and Harmony’ mural
Although some believe it was painted by Jackson Beardy himself, the mural — titled Peace and Harmony — was actually created in Jackson’s honor by students at R.B. Russell Vocational High School one year after he died. One of those students was Leo Neilson, a Peguis First Nation painter who himself became famous under the name Sweetpea.
Jackson Beardy, who was born on the Garden Hill First Nation in northern Manitoba, belonged to the Woodland School of Art and was a prominent member of the Indian Group of Seven, which included Daphne Odjig, Alex Janvier, Eddy Cobiness, Joseph Sanchez and Norval Morrisseau.