There is a deep and storied history in Moose Jaw regarding the LGBT community, and Moose Jaw pride have painted a mural representing the past and present events of the community.

"There's a lot of moving pieces here. I think we obviously wanted to have some colours in the back alley. And I think we've got that. We wanted to acknowledge the struggles of people of colour within the LGBT movement, so we've the black and brown squares complimenting the rainbow. And the Philadelphia pride flag has black and brown stripes on top, so we wanted to acknowledge that."

There is a great deal of history within Moose Jaw's past when speaking of the LGBT community. "I think that's people would be really surprised to know that there's so much history", said Wickenhauser. "We wanted to make sure that we did something to tell and share that visually, and we're going to be working on some resources to try to put some of those stories into a way for people to read them and share them."


The tree above the sign is Crescent Park, where that protest finished, and Rev. Colin Clay spoke about how God loved everyone. It changed the conversation from people talking about how it was LGBT people who are sinful and evil versus the church. "Rev. Collin Clay really put it into perspective to say actually we're talking about a God that loves everyone, and no one group has a monopoly on the word of God. So that opened up a space within Christian frameworks", said Wickenhauser. Crescent Park also has a lot of history within the LGBT community, as it was the location of their first pride march back in 2016, holding a few different events there as well. "The protest signs also remind us of our first Moose Jaw pride parade on Main St. back in 2017."

Next to that is the Sacred Hoop, which is divided into 4 sections. On the top is the buffalo sage, representing earth. On the bottom, fire, represented by a campfire. Then 2 crows with a rainbow in the background representing the sky, and then on the left is the river. "We worked with a Two Spirit elder, who helped us pick symbols that were local and representing the local indigenous community. So the two feathers represent the Two Spirit community, people who are both LGBT and indigenous," said Wickenhauser.

The gender queer flag brings the purple, white and green colours. That flag was raised for the first time, in Saskatchewan in an official ceremony, in Moose Jaw at Central Collegiate. Wickenhauser said that "We're really proud of that flag raising. And we wanted to talk about the time that those flags were stolen, and they way that the community responded by recognizing the hurt that's in the community and the need to respond to anger and fear with love. When the flags were stolen, what we ended up doing was recognizing that we shouldn't have put up just one flag. We should have given more flags to everyone. And we thank the person who took the flag for reminding us of how important these symbols were our community."

"We have GLAMJ coffee cups here," he said, "representing the coffee group that has existed in Moose Jaw for more than 10 years. And the work that that group has done in providing consistent space for people to come and find community and to be themselves. And that coffee group has moved to various locations around the city, but one thing that's been consistent is the coffee."


The drag community and the various work they've done for the LGBT community are represented by the red shoes. The shoes also represent the Rainbow Retro thrift shop, and the location they have on Main street. "The work that we're doing to provide people a safe space to help bring change."

"The rainbow flag was first raised above City Hall in 2008. That was an important moment in our city's history where pride was officially proclaimed the city put up the flag and that was a thing that GLAMJ had done", said Wickenhauser.

Wickenhauser said that the mural is a community mural and people came together to talk about what they wanted to see and how they wanted to see it represented, and Karli, the artist who designed and painted the mural, has done an incredible job bringing ideas together into an official representation.

Completing the mural in time for pride week was the final goal, which they've accomplished. Pride week is May 26th to June 1st.For a full list of events, .