Rivers unveils new mural

RIVERS — A new mural has been painted in Rivers to commemorate history in the community.

The Rivers Train Station Restoration Committee hosted a ribbon cutting on Sept. 24 to designate a new mural on the side of the Westoba Credit Union building. The mural depicts a bicycle, a globe, a factory, blossoms and ribbons.

Committee member Donna Morken told the Sun the mural is about a former bicycle factory that operated in the ’70s and early ’80s near Rivers. The factory was a partnership within Canada, but also across the Pacific Ocean.

“It’s an amazing historical event that nobody really thinks about,” Morken said. “This is a country from another side of the world that came to produce bicycles here.”

Sekine, a Japanese bicycle brand, set up the factory near Rivers from 1973 to 1981. It operated out of the former Canadian Forces Base Rivers, which had closed a few years prior.

The factory deal involved Japan, Canada, local governments and Indigenous people.

“Its a part of the town,” Morken said.

To build this history into modern day Rivers, the committee commissioned a mural. The mural depicts the old factory and a Sekine model bicycle produced at the time, cherry blossoms symbolic of Japanese culture, ribbons symbolic of Indigenous ribbon dresses, and an Earth as a globe with a handshake across the Pacific Ocean.

The mural cost over $10,000 to put together, Morken said. The funding came from a grant by the Province of Manitoba under arts for culture and sport in community.

Harding-area muralists Mary Lowe and Erica Lowe, mother and daughter, worked on the painting part time from June until September, Erica told the Sun. They worked side by side about 60 hours on the project, and got a glimpse of the history and how it relates to the present.

“I think the main thing about that mural is the story,” Erica said. “It was neat to be in this point in history years later with the same sort of representatives.”

Attendees at the mural’s designation last month included Japanese consulate representative Yoshiko Okada, and Japanese professors Junichiro Koji, Satomi Tozawa and Tsuyoshi Tokuda.

Premier Wab Kinew issued a statement for the designation, saying the story of Sekine is a successful example of how much can be achieved by working together.

“I’m grateful for the partnerships like this one that have paved the way for a future grounded in unity and collaboration,” he wrote in a prepared statement.

The Sekine factory was opened at the Oo-Za-We-Kwun Centre, an industrial training centre for Manitoba First Nations. The company wanted to manufacture bicycles inside Canada at the time to avoid tariffs. Housing at the former military base also made it easier to employ staff, and the rail line offered means of distribution in North America.

Following its grand opening on Sept. 8, 1973, the facility was hailed by as only the third bicycle manufacturing plant in the country, after CCM of Toronto and Raleigh of Waterloo, Ont. The Rivers bicycle plant was just the second one opened by Sekine Industries outside Japan, with the other having operated in Taiwan. The Brandon Sun reported the year that it opened that 35 of Sekine’s 57 employees in Manitoba were Indigenous.

Over its lifespan, thousands of bicycles were manufactured at the factory.

The Oo-Za-We-Kwun Centre was opened at the former military base through a partnership between the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood (now called the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs), the federal government and the Manitoba government. It closed in 1980, which, among other things, led the bicycle factory to close the following year.

Morken said the mural is dedicated to remembering this little-known story because of its impacts in the community. Some families were formed because of the factory, and that ripple carries on.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com