Indigenous-led community space forced to close due to funding

In 2020, a group set up a tipi in Victoria Park in the name of the Land Back movement, which represented a safe space for Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals in the community.

The location changed several times, eventually becoming the Willow River Centre at 243 King St. E in Kitchener. It is the only Indigenous, Two-Spirit and Queer-led community space in Waterloo Region.

In a post to social media, the Willow River Centre leadership team said a lack of consistent funding was the primary reason the centre was being forced to close.

“Over the past year, we have applied for numerous grants to cover lease costs and were denied at nearly every turn.” The letter read. It went on to say, “In the end, we became solely dependent on the Upstream Fund through the Region of Waterloo — a fund that was never intended to carry the full weight of operating a community centre.”

Co-Director of Willow River Centre, Amy Smoke told 570 NewsRadio, they knew this day was coming.

“We’ve been preparing for it. We hoped to not give a sense we are closing all together. Land Back and Willow River Centre are more than a brick and mortar. We’ll continue what we can do in the meantime. But, we have been preparing for this for the last few weeks.”

The announcement of the closure came the day after Red Dress Day and a month before both Pride and National Indigenous Peoples Month in June. Smoke said the irony of the timing wasn’t lost on them, but also wasn’t planned.

“It just lined up that it was the day after. And significant, right? We are constantly being removed from our lands, as is the growing number of murdered or missing Indigenous people.”

The letter said work is underway to find a qualified tenant to take over the lease by June 1. It stressed that the group is committed to making the transition as smooth as possible.

Smoke said the center might be closing – but the work will continue.

“We’re going to continue on. We’re going to continue the struggle and the fight. We’re always reachable, people know where we are. We still have all of our social medias to answer any questions. We’re still here voluntarily, like, we are not getting paid. We’re sitting in the center, the door is still open. We will be open to the community for as long as we can.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been started to help raise money for a new location, to cover transition costs and to ensure the work will continue.