The West End Murals, the best street-art in Winnipeg

The West End Murals Tour was pretty high in my to-do list of things to do in Winnipeg. And I can now tick this item off my list! Did you know that James Bond is from Winnipeg? That coffee is taken with salt in Ethiopia? I learned all this and many other things during the West End Murals tour I did a while back.

The tour was gifted to me by the West End Biz but my opinion – positive – is objective.

Did you know than…

Manitoba women were the first to get the right to vote in Canada?

Women in Manitoba got the right to vote in January 1916, thanks to Nellie McClung and her group of suffragettes. By comparison, women won the right to vote in France in 1945 and Quebec was the last Canadian province to grant it in 1952. Nellie McClung then became a MP in Alberta.

I learned during the tour of the West End Murals that the first feminist newspaper was written, printed and distributed in great secrecy in Winnipeg. Magret Benedictsson, who was also a suffragist, had to take a male pen name to sign her articles in Freyja. The house where she lived is also … in the West End!

Did you know than…

The West End is home to the largest group of immigrants in Winnipeg?

La murale Woven Together est peut-être ma préférée du tour. Elle contient une formule de bienvenue dans les onze langues les plus parlées selon les statistiques officielles (pas dans l’ordre) : anglais, ukrainien, amharique, punjabi, espagnol, mandarin, cantonais, portugais, français, tagalog et russe.

The Woven Together mural is perhaps my favorite of the tour. It has some sort of greetings in one of the eleven most spoken languages according to official census (not in order): English, Ukrainian, Amharic, Punjabi, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Portuguese, French, Tagalog and Russian.

The artist incorporated into these welcoming words the textiles of the ethnic groups most present in the West End. That’s why you can see on the mural the Métis arrow sash, batik from Southeast Asia, Ojibwe embroidery… and among others, the cat from the adjoining shop.

Did you know than…

Coffee is taken with salt in Ethiopia?

The Ethiopian coffee ceremony lasts for hours. You have to roast the beans on the fire, grind them, sift them. The coffee pot is called a jebena and the coffee is served very black and very strong in tiny handleless cups. The hostess drinks three cups in quick succession and some add salt to counterbalance the bitterness of the coffee!

The Ethiopian restaurant Harman’s Café offers to experiment a coffee ceremony (and I really would like to try).

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony Mural West End Winnipeg

Did you know than…

James Bond comes from Winnipeg?

William Stephenson would have been Ian Fleming’s inspiration for the character of James Bond! The Canadian was during the two World Wars a soldier, an inventor, an engineer, an analyst… He flew planes, did counterintelligence, participated in Operation Enigma, and he was close enough to Churchill and Roosevelt to call them by their first names.

His incredible life and his friendship with Ian Fleming are therefore responsible for the rumours according to which he would be the inspiration behind James Bond. James Bond is a Winnipegger!

William Stephenson Winnipeg James Bond Mural

Did you know than…

Winnipeg was mostly made by a single Mayor?

Bill Norrie was mayor of Winnipeg from 1979 to 1992 and this mural helps show all of his accomplishments. Among other things, he created the Leo Mol’s gardens in Assiniboine Park, which is the only sculpture garden in the world devoted to a single artist, saved pandas and obtained historic designation for the Forks site.

Info about the West End Murals Tour

The West End Murals Guided Tour lasts approximately 2 hours and the route changes every year. There aren’t just frescoes either, you also pass historic houses, important places in the history of the West End and I even got to taste some chocolate! Local artists are chosen each year to create murals in the summer and the young people of the neighbourhood come to help them paint.

Each mural illustrates an aspect of the West End in Winnipeg and has a story. For example, in the two murals below, we see African animals – since the owners of the store on the corner are of African origin – who mingle with Canadian animals. The man on the bike is Zucchi, a West End resident who died in 2002, with no real job or home but who was the essence of the neighbourhood.

Guided tours of the West End can be organized upon request and details can be found on the West End Biz page. In summer, they take place several times a day from Monday to Friday. The tour costs just five dollars – what are you waiting for?