Winnipeg artists design national monument recognizing the LGBT Purge

A Winnipeg team of visual artists, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, have been recognized for designing a national monument in Ottawa that honors the LGBT Purge, a dark period in Canadian history when the government persecuted queer individuals. The monument was unveiled in Ottawa on Friday and is the first of its kind worldwide.

Millan and Dempsey won an international design competition in 2020 to create the monument. They drew inspiration from the strength, hope, and resilience of the queer community in Canada. The monument features a thunderhead cloud over the Prairies, symbolizing both destruction and a sense of uplift and power that comes from being part of a supportive community.

The project was funded by the LGBT Purge Fund, established from a settlement reached in 2018 following a class-action lawsuit against the federal government. The fund aims to compensate survivors and support reconciliation and memorialization efforts.

The surrounding area of the monument in Ottawa includes a healing circle, narrative walls detailing the LGBT Purge, a tribute basin, and a fruit orchard. The monument's design is both emotionally powerful and uplifting, a tribute to the past while inspiring hope for the future.