In 1987 Manitoba passed the Human Rights Code, protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation. This decision prompted the first official Pride March in Winnipeg. A celebration that has continued throughout the years.

On August 2, 1987, a group waited outside the Manitoba Legislative Building to hear the results of the vote on whether to include sexual orientation in the Manitoba Human Rights Code. It was decided that if they voted in favour they would march in celebration, if not, they would march in protest.

In the decades leading up to this decision, Winnipeg had developed a rich queer history. An important part of Winnipeg’s queer culture was the creation of queer meeting places. Queer meeting places were essential to early queer culture because being discovered could have you attacked or arrested. One of these queer meeting places developed at the bottom of the hill behind the Manitoba Legislative building with a view of the golden boy, which became a symbol to the community. Read more about this by checking out CBC’s podcast The Secret Life of Canada: The Golden Boy.

In 1973 Chris Vogel and Rich North became the first gay couple to apply for a marriage licence in Canada. Although the Manitoba government denied their request, Reverent Norman Naylor of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winnipeg officiated their wedding. When the provincial government refused to register their wedding, they began a long legal battle to have their marriage recognized.

All this lead to the decision in 1987 when Manitoba passed the Human Rights Code, protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation. (It wasn’t until 2012 when Manitoba’s Human Rights Code Amendment Act was passed, that gender identity was added to the list of protected characteristics.) This Code replaced the Human Rights Act passed in 1970. This decision prompted the first official Pride March in Winnipeg. A celebration that has continued throughout the years.

Although this was a moment that marked great progress for the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, there was still a great deal of prejudice and, according to Pride Winnipeg, a few people in the first march wore paper bags over their heads to conceal their identity.

The fight for equality continued and in 2004 Manitoba became the fifth province in Canada to legalize same-sex marriage, doing so almost a year before the federal government legalized it across Canada. (Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first outside Europe to legalize same-sex marriage.)

Header Image: A still shot from CBC’s documentary, ‘One Gay City: A History of LGBT Life in Winnipeg.’ 

Canadian Multiculturalism Day, established in 2002, is a day to celebrate Canada’s diversity and to recognize the contributions of the ethnocultural groups that make up Canadian society. In 1971 Canada became the first country in the world to adopt a policy of multiculturalism. This policy was further integrated into Canadian law with its inclusion in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988)

Many early settlers in Manitoba Scottish. William Brown (resident and owner of the 1856 Red River Frame House) was living in his hometown of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland when he was recruited by the Hudson Bay Company in 1830. He worked as a labourer, middleman, and cook at several forts in the Northwest Territories and in the district of Red River. After his retirement to the Red River Settlement, Brown married Charlotte Omand who had Scottish and Ojibwe heritage.

Manitoba’s official tartan was designed by Hugh Kirkwood Rankine, a second-generation Scottish immigrant born in Winnipeg. The coloured threads tell the story of early immigration to Manitoba and the province’s ethnocultural diversity.

Red squares: For the Red River Settlement, the stone forts, and fur trade posts

Green squares: For the rich farmlands, forests, minerals, fisheries, and waterpower

Blue lines: For Thomas Douglas, Fifth Earl of Selkirk, founder of the Red River Settlement

Dark green lines: For the people of many cultures and ethnicities that enrich Manitoba

Golden lines: For Manitoba’s bountiful harvests

White squares (in the “Dress” tartan): For Manitoba’s winter snows

Make your own official Manitoba Tartan!

Colour or paint the downloadable template or get creative with your materials and use construction paper or fabric! Once you’ve made a Manitoba Tartan, try designing your own tartan with colours that represent things that are important to you.

Download Template Here:

Download Colouring Page Here:

Download Colouring Page Here:

Download Colouring Page Here:

Download Colouring Page Here:

Join Charlotte for her first Storytime as she introduces herself and talks about life in the 1890s.

Charlotte Taylor, the daughter of John Taylor and granddaughter of William Brown and Charlotte Omand, lives in Headingley in the year 1890, where she attends school and visits her grandparents to help them around the farm. Charlotte loves company and has many stories to share about her grandparents and life on the farm.

Historical Context from Charlotte’s Stories

John Taylor

John Taylor was Charlotte’s father, but he was also a community leader. After moving to Headingley in 1855 to establish a school, he successfully operated a large farm, trading post, blacksmith shop, Royal Exchange Hotel, livery stable, and a barber shop. During the Red River Resistance of 1870, he was elected to represent the Headingley Parish.

Taylor, an English Metis who spoke French, English, and Cree, was an active member of the Legislative Assembly and became the first Manitoba Minister of Agriculture in 1879. When the Rural Municipality of Assiniboia was established in 1880, he was elected as one of the first seven councillors.

Rupert’s Land

Before Canada became a country, a large part of present-day Canada belonged to a territory called Rupert’s Land. In 1670 the territory encompassed 1,490,895 square miles (3,861,400 square kilometres). Rupert’s Land was a part of British North America and located primarily around the Hudson’s Bay. The Hudson’s Bay Company conducted the fur trade throughout this territory, based on a charter granted by King Charles II.

In the Rupert’s Land Act of 1868, the United Kingdom Parliament authorized the sale of Rupert’s Land to Canada. However, this sale did not recognize the claim on the land by the Indigenous people of North America who had already settled and inhabited the land.

Dominion of Canada

Beginning with Confederation in 1867, the Dominion of Canada was Canada’s formal title. During Confederation negotiations, the Fathers of Confederation wanted to call their new country the Kingdom of Canada. The British disagreed, and eventually the Dominion of Canada was agreed upon.

Government institutions stopped using the word Dominion during the 1960s and in 1982 Dominion Day was officially changed to Canada Day.

In recognition of National Indigenous History Month and Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21st, we are highlighting some of the Museum’s First Nations and Métis artifacts.

Métis

The Manitoba Act of 1870 granted 1,400,000 acres of land to families of Métis residents of Manitoba to compensate for lost or disappearing hunting rights. Charlotte Omand Brown, who lived in the Red River Frame House with her husband William Brown, was of Scottish and Ojibwe heritage. In 1877-78, Charlotte’s children (John, Magnus, James, William Jr., Francis Jane Brown Taylor, and Margaret Ann Brown) were each allotted their 240 acres in the areas of East Marquette, Selkirk, and Lisgar. Francis Jane Brown Taylor married the Honorable John Taylor, Manitoba’s first Minister of Agriculture who also received Métis scrip.

The Assiniboine

The Assiniboine are an Indigenous people group who were living in Manitoba at the time of permanent European settlement. Because they often traded with the Hudson Bay Company, they were well-known to European traders and many of their traditional trails and campsites became trade routes and trading posts.

The first permanent European settlement in the region which is now Manitoba, established by Lord Selkirk in 1811, was called Assiniboia in recognition of the Assiniboine. In 1880, the provincial government created the Rural Municipality of Assiniboia from the parishes of Headingly, St. Charles, St. James, and St. Boniface West.

The Plains Ojibwe

These Plains Ojibwe moccasins are dated to the late 1800s. They are decorated with a geometric bead pattern and horsehair piping. The Plains Ojibwe (also known as Saulteaux) migrated west and north from the Great Lakes area as the fur trade spread into the plains. When they moved into traditional Cree territories, some Ojibwe peoples created blended Oji-Cree communities or joined Cree groups.

Learn at home how to make Pioneer children’s crafts. Written instructions are available below for download, or follow along in this video.

Download Instruction Pamphlet Here:

Download Instruction Pamphlet Here:

Download Instruction Pamphlet Here:

Hon. Scott Fielding, MLA for Kirkfield Park, recognizes the great work of the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia.

Pioneer Heritage Day at the St. James-Assinaboia Museum

Winnipeggers have a chance to celebrate the city’s history with Pioneer Heritage Day. It all takes place at the Historical Museum of St. James-Assiniboia on July 14.