Rooster Town: Home

Métis have lived in what is now known as Manitoba for over 200 years. 

This Guide shares information sources about a Métis community known to its residents as Pakan Town, and which became known by many outside the community as Rooster Town. 

In 1959 members of the community were displaced by the City of Winnipeg to make way for commercial and other development. Homes left standing were bulldozed and burnt.

The information available about Rooster Town shows that its boundaries shifted over the years. While that was the case, many of Rooster Town's residents lived either on or near the land now occupied by Grant Park Shopping Centre, Grant Park High School, the Bill and Helen Norrie Library and the Pan Am Pool complex.

While much of the published writing about the community reflects research looking at the years 1901-1961, Métis families occupied and cared for the lands that they came to call Pakan Town for many years prior to the early 1900s, having been pushed out of their previous Red River homes.

All Winnipeg Public Library Info Guides are living documents.  Please check back for additions or updates, and contact the Library with any questions you may have.

Image: Fetching Water by Métis artist Ian August, located in Winnipeg at Beaumont [Transit] Station, Georgina Avenue at Parker Street.
Photo credit: Liz Tran. Source: Winnipeg Arts Council.