During the lunch rush, busker Dwaine Davey serenades Winnipeg’s working crowd.
A small skywalk between a downtown food court and Winnipeg’s Millennium Library is his year-round stage.
“I’ve got nothing but a positive response from all the security, paramedics, police, you name it, all walks of life,” Davey said. “It brightens their day.”
His guitar empowers him to connect with passers-by.
“A lot of people are grieving. They’re grieving from people lost to COVID, to opioids, drugs and drinking. And I meet a lot of them here,” he said. “This guitar is like grief work.”
It’s also a de-escalation tool.
“They walk into that corridor, they stop, they’ll hear a song. They’ll hear it and they’ll sit down,” he said. “When they leave that hall, they’re not angry anymore.”
Building a safer Downtown
Now, Davey said he and a team of musicians are campaigning to make busking a part of Winnipeg’s downtown safety strategy.
They’ve purchased the domain, www.winnipegbuskers.ca, to build a forum, and hope to get the City and community organizations on board.
“What we’re hoping to do is gather the singers, not only from Winnipeg, but in Manitoba. Like, if you’re up north and you’re coming to the city, maybe you want to try out singing. Come down, sign up on our website,” he said. “What we want to do is primarily create some sort of association.”
Davey, originally from Moose Factory, Ont., said he’s one of the few Indigenous buskers in Winnipeg.
He estimates that around 90 per cent of downtown buskers are male.
“We were wondering, ‘Where are all the female singers?’,” he said. “Apparently, they don’t feel safe singing Downtown.”
His plan to change that? Connect them with security buddies through their platform.
“We’d like to create a security system for them. Like, a buddy system,” he said.
Revitalizing the scene
While he’s become a fixture at the skywalk, Davey dreams of a dedicated space for musicians.
“We could have our own artist area,” he said. “They have some for painters, but there’s nothing really for singers, and there’s a lot of lease spots available. It’s something we could look at.”
With plans to launch the project in the New Year, Davey hopes to revitalize Winnipeg’s once-thriving busking scene while boosting downtown safety.
“We need Native singers, we need non-Native singers. We need to collaborate,” he said. “Hopefully, out of this website, we can get something going in the new year, something positive, and bring this vibe back to Winnipeg, which used to exist here at one point.”
