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Manitoba’s newest future provincial park is getting a special celebration this week as funds are raised to support those who played an integral part in its next chapter. A Lemay Forest Celebration will be hosted at the St. Norbert Arts Centre to raise funds for the Land Protectors Legal Fund, a group working to preserve the forest in the face of development earlier this year.
The forest’s significance comes from the presence of a cemetery on the site associated with the former Asile Ritchot orphanage, which existed from 1904 to 1948. Research conducted by Heritage Winnipeg indicates that somewhere between 1,200 and 2,300 children had died at the facility and may have been buried in a mass grave in the forest.
Diane Bousquet, one of the self-described defenders of Lemay Forest and its ceremonial fire keeper, notes the deep cultural significance of the land not just to the history of Winnipeg, but to Manitoba as a whole. “I spent many years running through those forests and playing as a child,” she says, “so it’s deeply significant to me as an individual, but as a community, it holds the legacy of residential school.”
Another person who holds fond memories of playing in the forest as a child is Martin Beaver. A celebrated international violinist now based in Los Angeles, Beaver grew up in St. Norbert and first learned about the controversy surrounding the Lemay Forest on a return visit a year ago. “I got together with some of my classmates from my grade school years,” Beaver recalls. “Shortly after that, I was sent some information on a couple of websites and I read all about it and I thought, ‘Gee, this is something that I wish I could contribute in some way.’ St. Norbert and this forest are very near and dear to my heart.”
In partnership with Manitoba Mobile Music, a new local concert series that aims to use chamber music to promote awareness for social causes like this one, Beaver and a wide range of local instrumentalists will present Franz Schubert’s Octet in F major, D. 803. The six movements of the octet will be interspersed with land defenders like Bousquet sharing stories of the land and of their experience in preserving it. “When we heard that Martin was keenly interested in coming and supporting the Lemay Forest protectors, we were of the same mind and we thought this is a wonderful opportunity,” says horn player Ken MacDonald of Manitoba Mobile Music.
“We’re calling it A Lemay Forest Celebration because it’s gratitude all around: gratitude that there’s been this recognition now of the importance, not only the cultural importance, but this is a very rare riparian forest. It’s an exceptional parcel of land for so many reasons, for so many people.”
For Bousquet, this concert represents the ultimate intersection not only between settler and Indigenous relationships with the land as they move together towards reconciliation, but also a musical rendering of her experience in the forest at the height of confrontations earlier this year. “You feel the difference,” she says, “the slow and the storm and then the calm after the storm. And that’s how I perceived the piece of music. So, to me, it’s deeply profound.”
“It’s very, very meaningful,” says Beaver. “It really is great to be able to come back to St. Norbert, not only just to be there for me personally, but also to think that my visit is going to have a positive impact in saving the Lemay Forest.”
A Celebration of Lemay Forest is taking place at 7 p.m. on August 19 at the St. Norbert Arts Centre, with funds raised going to the Land Protectors Legal Fund. More information and tickets can be found at Manitoba Mobile Music’s website.