Working groups on climate and Indigenous relations hold retreat
Twenty-five people involved in climate and Indigenous relations working groups within Mennonite Church Canada regional churches, as well as people from related organizations, gathered at Wilderness Edge Retreat and Conference Centre in Pinawa, Manitoba, from October 4-6, to discuss their work and hopes. The retreat was led by MC Canada’s climate action coordinator Sandy Plett,…
Unsettling stories of darkness, healing and hope
I didn’t realize what I was signing up for when I agreed to write about Indigenous-Mennonite Encounters in Time and Place, a conference held at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., from May 12 to 15. It was an intense weekend of learning, emotion, sharing, dancing and stories. The conference started with a mix…
Series will explore responses to climate crisis
Mennonite Church Canada is hosting a new online community learning series. “Creator’s Call in a Climate Emergency” starts on Jan. 20 and lasts eight weeks. Co-hosted by the national church’s Indigenous-Settler Relations office and Sustainability Leadership Group, the series is open to anyone wishing to learn about decarbonization and decolonization as ways forward for the…
Riverton Fellowship Circle’s legacy lives on
When the soft cloud of an expired dandelion explodes, the flower is gone, but the seeds that have spread far and wide soon erupt into new life. So it is with the recently closed Riverton Fellowship Circle. After 35 years of worshipping together, the church decided to close its doors. But its legacy will live…
Dishonoured treaties are ‘the ghost of our history’
Myeengun Henry, Indigenous elder, says treaty relationships should be tended. “We need to shine those up every year so we don’t forget how important they are.” Henry was the first speaker in a seven-month, online storytelling series called “Treaty as Sacred Covenant: Stories of Indigenous-Mennonite Relations,” that centres on covenants made, broken and renewed. A…
‘We are in this together’
In 1990, as the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival on this side of the Atlantic loomed, Mennonites felt compelled to do something tangible. The Conference of Mennonites in Canada (CMC) formally resolved to work with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), which was already exploring the establishment of a Jubilee Fund. The intent of the fund was,…
CPT creates Turtle Island Solidarity Network
In the wake of the closure of the full-time Indigenous People’s Solidarity Team due to necessary budget cuts at Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), the new Turtle Island Solidarity Network comprised of reservists who are engaged in Indigenous solidarity and decolonization has been created. Turtle Island is the Indigenous name for North America. The new network…
A life-long journey for freedom
For the first time in more than a century, the isolated island of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation is now connected to the rest of mainland Canada. The Indigenous community, located on the Manitoba-Ontario border, just celebrated the official opening of Freedom Road, a 24-kilometre, all-season road that links to the mainland via the Trans-Canada…
Walk for Common Ground puts faith into action
Friends and family huddled in light afternoon rain on June 14, waiting for about 30 participants in the Walk for Common Ground to arrive in Calgary. The walkers were led in by a Scottish bagpiper, then greeted with drumming and singing by local Indigenous elders. Tears of joy mixed with the rain as walkers were…
My day on the Walk for Common Ground
The image on the Treaty 6 flag is striking. The crest shows a European and Indigenous leader engaged in a never-ending handshake, a longstanding and well-understood symbol of mutual agreement. The edge of the crest is lined with words that testify to the longevity of this agreement: “As long as the sun shines… And the rivers…
