It’s a bright winter day, and Conway looks for circles everywhere. A sacred symbol in his Indigenous culture—representing wholeness, interconnectivity, and the cycle of life—the circle is also the anchor shape of his beloved dreamcatchers.
“It’s a bicycle rim,” Conway says, smiling proudly at the latest found hoop in his collection.
Conway has carefully handcrafted countless dreamcatchers for friends, neighbours, relatives, and strangers, using creative materials like bicycle rims, picture frames … even an 82-inch trampoline ring. (That stunner of an artpiece—likely the largest dreamcatcher in Winnipeg—can be seen at St. Boniface Street Links’ 24/7 Safe Space at 604 St. Mary’s Road.)
He was 13 when he first learned how to make the protective talismans from his grandfather.
“I was bored on the trapline,” Conway recalled, adding he would use anything he could find, even back then—like shoelaces—to complete the pieces.
With dreamcatchers as his beacon, Conway himself has come full circle, too, over the last year.
As a young man, he took courses at Red River College and became a Red Seal painter. But when the tight grip of addiction took over his life, Conway spent more than four years living in an encampment near the Red River in Point Douglas.
It was a challenge every day just to survive.
“I was lonely, sad, cold at night, hungry,” he remembered.
On a frigid winter day in 2024, an outreach team came to the riverbank to share some essential supplies. They also shared some information about Astum Api Niikinaahk—Winnipeg’s tiny-home village, just a few kilometres away from the riverbank.
“They saw me, and I was cold, really cold. It was -39 C or something,” said Conway. “They asked if I wanted a jacket, and they explained about this place.”
The outreach team told Conway one of Astum Api Niikinaahk’s 22 suites was available and asked if he would like to come with them.
Not ready in that moment, Conway turned down the offer.
The same outreach workers returned a few days later—and this time, Conway accepted.
“I found myself here. I didn’t expect this,” he recalled recently, more than a year after that pivotal day on the river. “I think I made the right choice. It’s going really good for me now.
“I love it here. It’s changed me,” he continued. “Who knows where I would be today without this place?”
"Anyone that's living unsheltered can just come with what they have on them and everything is here for them."
Astum Api Niikinaahk—’Come and Sit at Our Home’ in Michif—welcomed its first residents in January 2023. There are 22 transitional housing units in the village, with 18 170-square-foot bachelor units and four 400-square-foot units for people who face mobility challenges.
The tiny houses face inward towards each other in a circular courtyard, which contains a sacred fireplace, benches, and gardens for growing medicines. The inside of each unit is fully furnished with a bed, bathroom, kitchen, a two-burner stove, a coffee maker, and a microwave.
Residents have no limit on how long they can stay, to give them time to stabilize their lives at their own pace. Currently, about 200 people are on the waiting list. Astum Api Niikinaahk is managed by the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre—an organization supported by United Way Winnipeg donors.
In his new home, Conway was able to access not only a safe and stable roof over his head, but the supports he needed to get sober and return to solid ground.
Now, a year later, he regularly participates in the cultural ceremonies offered at the village, like drumming sessions, elders and knowledge keepers for teachings, and sharing circles. He takes walks every day in the neighbourhood, a friendly and welcome face wherever he goes, and he returns to the river often to catch up with friends.
And of course, he makes dreamcatchers.
“I pick up my dreamcatcher, and it brings my spirit up again,” says the artist. “It makes you thankful. It makes you make better choices in life.”
Many of his neighbours at Astum Api Niikinaahk have his signature circular designs hanging outside their suites, and the shared community space is also adorned with his bold and beautiful art. He also sells his pieces around the city to help make a living.
“I still have struggles, and it’s a battle. But I don’t look at the past,” said Conway. “I want a really good life for myself.
“My dream is me today.”
