Mennonite treaty rights
To attend church in Winnipeg is a right that arises directly from Treaty 1. The signatures of Aboriginal leaders and Crown representatives on that 139-year-old document give me, a non-Aboriginal person, the right to sit in the pew. This will sound to some like a provocative, ideologically driven overstatement, but I want to make the…
For discussion: August 23, 2010 issue
Following are questions for reflecting on and discussing the Canadian Mennonite stories on the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission events in 2010: “How complicit are Mennonites in Residential School Abuse?” Evelyn Rempel Petkau attended the first TRC hearings and spoke with Mennonites about whether the church might be complicit in the system. “With God, all things are…
With God, all things are possible
When you pass by aboriginal people lying in the gutters on skid row, do you think that they are just “drunk Indians who need to get a job”? Participants of the “Do residential schools and good news go together?” workshops at this summer’s Mennonite Church Canada assembly now know what those “drunk Indians” went through…
MC Canada shares the pain of Indian Residential School legacy
Delegates to Mennonite Church Canada Assembly 2010 struggled with just how to confess systemic complicity in the Indian Residential School (IRS) survivors issue while not admitting to being directly abusive in non-existent Mennonite residential schools. Of 139 residential schools identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as participants in the horrific legacy of residential…
A first step towards healing
As prayers began, a hush fell over the crowd and numerous people pointed to the sky. The great spirit, the eagle, hovered overhead. Surely it was a clear sign of God’s presence and blessing as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) launch in Winnipeg, Man., drew to a close on June 19. The stories I…
How complicit are Mennonites in Residential School Abuse?
As the Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners begin their five-year sojourn across Canada to hear the stories of those who suffered under the Indian Residential School (IRS) system, Mennonites may well ask if or how they should be involved in this process. It was the Roman Catholic, Anglican, United and Presbyterian churches that entered into a…
Forgiveness to what end?
The Lutherans have asked us to forgive them for their violent persecution of us in the 16th century, laying to rest, as the Mennonite World Conference reporter, Byron Rempel Burkholder puts it, “500 years of guilt.” We have asked forgiveness of native Americans for our complicity in the much-publicized abuse scandal of the residential schools…
Poplar Hill’s closure remembered
The Poplar Hill (Ont.) Development School—the only Mennonite-affiliated school being officially looked at by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) currently making the rounds of Canadian communities—has been out of the news for more than two decades. The same can’t be said for the two-year period between 1989-91, when the residential school, which opened its…
