‘What do you do with an unjust benefit?’
For John Stoesz, making land reparations to Indigenous communities is a way to follow Jesus. In 2012, Stoesz’s family sold his grandparents’ farm near Mountain Lake, Minnesota. Stoesz returned half the proceeds of his share of the inheritance to Indigenous groups working for land justice. Mountain Lake is in the southwestern part of the state.…
Do I see a hand?
I was sitting on Dave Scott’s porch on the Swan Lake First Nation a few years back when he started talking about a handshake treaty between his Ojibwe ancestors and Mennonites. I had never heard of this. Later, I discovered no Mennonite historians had either. Last year, a group of southern Manitoba Mennonites went to…
Readers write: February 23, 2024
Review the confession of faith In response to “Jewish perspectives” (January 26), I note that Article 22 of the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective states: “We believe that peace is the will of God. God created the world in peace, and God’s peace is most fully revealed in Jesus Christ, who is our…
The meaning of seeds
At 9 a.m., it was already hot and humid in Hopelchén, a small city in the Yucatán peninsula. A collective of Maya farmers had gathered in the shaded courtyard outside the home where we were staying. We could hear laughter and chatter over the wall as we returned from our morning walk. As we stepped…
Lessons from the medicine wheel
Each year, A Common Word Alberta brings Muslims and Christians together in Edmonton to plan an annual interfaith dialogue. As the facilitator of Mennonite Church Alberta’s Bridge Building network (a re-imagined role that continues the good work of Donna Entz, who retired in 2022), I have played a significant part in planning the last two…
The Secret Treaty
The feature for our February 23, 2024 issue is a 12-page comic by noted graphic novelist Jonathan Dyck. For the piece, Dyck collaborated with Dave Scott, an historian and ambassador from the Swan Lake First Nation in southern Manitoba. See the sample below. For the full piece, subscribe here. Support for production of this comic…
Nothing new under the sun
In Ndebele, my language, we have a proverb that says, Inala kayihambi, kuhamba indlala. It says that times of abundant harvest are not reported, but times of hunger and famine make good news. Too true. All news worth reporting, in worldly standards, is that of horrendous happenings, such as wars and all forms of affliction…
Saskatchewan sidesteps First Nations in selling Crown land
First Nations in Saskatchewan are in conflict with the provincial government regarding the sale of Crown land. Indigenous peoples in the province have treaty rights to use government-owned land for hunting, fishing and gathering. They also purchase Crown land to fulfill outstanding treaty land obligations. As early as 2007, the provincial government started…
Giving back to the land
Our farmyard opened from its treelines to the south and southwest. A mile south, I could see the shelterbelts surrounding my paternal grandmother’s 1870s homestead. A few farmyards were dotted out in the horizon in the southwest, but looking that direction was mostly for watching weather systems develop, dissipate or roll in. Truth be…
