Singing Back the Buffalo
Last week I attended a screening of Singing Back the Buffalo, written and directed by Tasha Hubbard, with my family at the Regina Public Library Film Theatre. The last time we’d seen buffalo together was in 2018 in Grasslands National Park. I wanted my kids to see the keystone species of our ecoregion. To know their…
Medicine wheel dedicated to elder
On Sept. 7, Westminster United Church in Regina dedicated a medicine wheel in its Kâkesimokamik, “healing garden,” to local Elder Lorna Standingready. Standingready, who is from Peepeekisis First Nation and is a residential school survivor, was an Elder for the United Church of Canada. She provided guidance to Westminster in their decision to create the healing…
A live play, an endless search committee
My husband and I attended a performance of A Salesman in China at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario this week. The play, set in 1983, is based on the true story of the American playwright Arthur Miller traveling to China to direct the performance of his play, Death of a Salesman. Relations between the two…
On the death of Grand Chief Cathy Merrick
Last Friday, Cathy Merrick, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, collapsed while speaking to reporters outside the Law Courts building in Winnipeg. She was taken to hospital but did not survive. She was 62. Prior to serving as Grand Chief, Merrick was Executive Council member and then Chief of Pimicikamak Okimawin, the Cree…
Spelling bees and air shows
For me, Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition is a touchpoint, reminding me of my childhood, and a sign that summer is coming to an end. When I was a child, my parents, siblings and I would come to the CNE, as we called it, several times during its three-week season. Showing my age, I will tell…
Rubble and land in Ethiopia
Note: The following is an excerpt from a prayer letter/newsletter distributed by Joanne De Jong , a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker in Ethiopia, on August 8, 2024. I’ve been so sad. While we had our coffee this morning, under a make-shift tent on the street, we watched five young men help tear down their friend’s…
I don’t believe in the Olympic Dream
I like watching the Olympics, but I see only overblown virtuism and commercialized pretense in the notion that the games bring together the global village in a glow of equality and peace that will somehow contribute to the betterment of humanity. Equally vacuous is the tiresome repetition of the view that if you believe in…
Background on Israel-Palestine
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‘A win-win for everyone involved’
Nyawar Mapieny Gathoul’s baby and siblings are hungry. The father of her six-month-old isn’t around to help and, at just 17, the young mother also cares for her seven siblings because their parents have died. Nyawar is strong, resilient and hardworking. But the family has only enough food for one meal a day. Gathoul and…
Colleagues, friends remember Menno Wiebe
Menno Wiebe, who died on Jan. 5 at his home in Winnipeg, was highly respected in Mennonite circles and beyond for his work and relationships with Indigenous Peoples. While reporting for his tribute to Wiebe, senior writer Will Braun collected the following remembrances from a handful of the people who knew him. Edgy attire I…
