Wîhkwêntôwin Unveils Mural Celebrating Indigenous Roots and Community Unity

By Jeremy Appel

(ANNews) – The Wîhkwêntôwin Community League unveiled a mural painted by a local Indigenous artist on July 12, reflecting the inclusivity behind Edmonton’s largest neighbourhood’s new Cree name.

Kayla Bellerose painted the mural, which is displayed in the tunnel that’s shared by a bike path and the High Level Bridge Streetcar tracks, located just north of Constable Ezio Faraone Park.

Since the mural sits along two transport networks, an event celebrating the unveiling was held at the park, with live music, vendors, games, and free bannock, tea and ice cream. Volunteers took attendees who wanted to see the mural on a tour every half hour. 

Bellerose, who is First Nations from Treaty 8 on her mother’s side, said her mural was inspired by the river valley. 

“The neighbourhood is so close to the river, so I often go on walks to spend time with nature,” she explained to volunteers and dignitaries during the first tour of the day. 

Bellerose highlighted the pollinators on the mural, including the bumblebee and swallowtail butterfly. 

“I don’t know about you, but when I go on walks in the river valley, I’m often eating Saskatoons. They’re super ripe right now, so I wanted to include plants that I often would see on my walks,” she added.

The mural also includes people Bellerose sees on her regular walks, including elderly people on a stroll, a mother walking her baby in a stroller, a couple on a date and a person in a wheelchair wearing an Oilers jersey. She also was sure to include an image of her dog, Willow. 

There are seven flowers representing seven generations into the future. 

The words, Together, we are stronger, are written across the mural, a phrase Bellerose said she saw written down during an engagement session at last year’s community league BBQ.

“That really stood out to me when I was coming up with the concept of that idea that we are stronger together as a collective. Because right now in society, there’s so much division and separation from one another,” the artist said. 

“It’s not productive. It’s not helpful.

“All of us are connected. All of us are related. We’re all human beings, living here, sharing this land as Treaty people. Let’s respect each other, let’s be kind to each other, let’s live together as a community.”

In January 2024, the community league announced that the neighbourhood formerly known as Oliver would henceforth be known as Wîhkwêntôwin, which translates to ‘circle of friends’ in Cree. 

The community’s previous namesake—Frank Oliver—was a notorious racist, who advocated for the forced removal of First Nations communities, including the Papaschase band, as a Liberal MP and publisher of the Edmonton Bulletin.

The process of renaming the neighbourhood, which sits just west of downtown, began in 2020 with the #UncoverOliver campaign, representing the first instance of a community-led process to rename a neighbourhood that was named after a problematic figure.

In attendance at the mural unveiling were Edmonton-Centre MLA David Shepherd and his local NDP caucus colleague Janis Irwin, Ward O-day’min city councillor Anne Stevenson and Edmonton Public School Board trustee Julie Kusiek.

“The man that this community used to be named for, was someone who had a very small vision of what it meant to be Albertan, of who belonged in this community and who belonged in our province, who deserved to have a voice and hold power,” said Shepherd. 

He praised the “diligent work” of the community league, which involved “some great community conversation” with Indigenous, Black and other community leaders, “to find a new name that truly represented who we are as Albertans now and what this community is.” 

“The new name—Wîhkwêntôwin—I think, embraces a much bigger vision of who we are,” Shepherd said, calling Bellerose’s mural a “beautiful representation” of this vision. 

Coun. Stevenson called the mural a “lasting gift that Kayla has given to the community.”

“Wîhkwêntôwin is the perfect name for this neighborhood—it is truly a circle of friends,” she said. “But I also think of the circle of keepers, and those are the volunteers at the community league who make the intentional effort to create spaces for us to come together in community.”

Kusiek, whose Ward D includes the newly named Wîhkwêntôwin School, noted that Bellerose’s mural “celebrates every single person in this community.”

She said that the process the community league went through in renaming the community “was so well done” that it made it easy for the public school board to rename the former Oliver School. 

“This is the name that best fits this school and school community, and when I look at that mural, we are stronger together,” said Kusiek.

Jeremy Appel is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Alberta Native News.