The perfect complexity of Coastal GasLink protests
In 2012, I spent two memorable hours in Smithers, B.C., with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), one of the chiefs at the centre of the Coastal GasLink crisis now confounding our nation. I also spent time with the chief and other members of the Haisla Nation, which supports the pipeline. Back home in Manitoba,…
Who do you support when a community is divided?
“The province of British Columbia alongside Coastal GasLink are continuing their plans to build a pipeline through the unceded territories of the Wet’suwet’en. The five hereditary chiefs and land defenders of Wet’suwet’en have denied access to Coastal GasLink, fearing the pipeline will cause irrevocable ecological damage,” states a call to action for faith communities and…
Walking and talking along the trail
In solidarity with their First Nations neighbours, Mennonites in the Fraser Valley joined others in a Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation from May 31 to June 2. The event was a partnership between Mennonite Central Committee B.C., Mennonite Church Canada, and several other denominations, including Anglican, the United Church and Christian Reformed Church. While…
‘What’s he doing out there?’
I have friends who live in Fond du Lac, a small, isolated community in northern Saskatchewan on the shore of Lake Athabasca, near the border with the Northwest Territories. A years-ago visit found me there in late November. One day, I found myself in a home with a half-dozen men visiting over mugs of coffee. Actually,…
From ‘never a teacher’ to ‘why not?’
“Never a teacher,” I declared from the time I was in public school, growing up in the Leamington district of southwestern Ontario. When I finished high school in Ontario, I enrolled at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (CMBC) in Winnipeg, and the “never a teacher” assertion played a prominent role in my mind through college, even…
Mennonites attend Indigenous theological studies symposium
The 20-or-so Mennonites who attended the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies (NAIITS) symposium were humbled by the grace of their hosts who welcomed them, without hesitation, into the conversation. They gathered in early June at the Acadia University campus in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, for this symposium on white supremacy, racial conflict, indigeneity and…
Decolonization through unsettling Scripture
Mennonite Church Canada recently released Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, the latest of several publications that explore reconciliation and Indigenous-settler relationships. The book, edited by Steve Heinrichs and illustrated by Jonathan Dyck, is a collaboration of more than 60 contributors who engage with the Bible in a new way to confront Christianity’s role…
Play confronts Doctrine of Discovery
The Doctrine of Discovery is based on the Roman Catholic papal bull “Inter caetera.” Issued by Pope Alexander VI on May 4, 1493, it gave all the lands along a meridian west of the Cape Verde Islands, off the west coast of Africa, to the Spanish crown. The document stated that any lands discovered and…
A must-see for all Canadians
Only in the last decade has the extent of Canada’s mistreatment of its Indigenous peoples been widely recognized. The most horrific example of this mistreatment was the residential school system that saw 150,000 Indigenous children taken from their families in an attempt to forcibly assimilate them into white Christian culture by driving out Indigenous…
Bloodvein Reserve
Many years ago, our archives first described this photograph as “School children at Bloodvein Reserve, ca. 1956.” The subject heading included the phrase, “Indians of North America,” correct for the time. If you go to the photograph description now, you will see that the word “Reserve” has been replaced with “First Nation,” and “Indians” with…
