Watch: Ten helpful steps to decolonize our minds
How can Mennonites, with their long colonial history, work toward genuine reconciliation with Indigenous peoples? Mennonite Church British Columbia’s Indigenous Relations Task Group has some ideas. In a video released earlier this year, the group’s members provide a list of 10 actionable steps Mennonites can take to decolonize their minds, and they invite believers to…
‘I didn’t know that was going on’
What do a handful of library books, a white Christmas tree and coloured paper feathers have in common? They were all part of an interactive educational response to the injustice of Indian Residential Schools. When Angela Schmiemann heard the news that the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation had discovered the unmarked graves of 215 children…
Lament and love
Once again news headlines are about how the church has failed. News about residential schools fill our newsfeeds, schools generally run by churches and funded by the government, with decades of separating families and leaving wounds of trauma for seven generations. Mennonites want to know, “Were we involved?” (See 2010 CM article online at https://bit.ly/3gjm2uL.)…
‘It was a wake-up call’
At the end of May, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 First Nation discovered the grave site of around 215 children at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. Like many people, Jim Shantz, former Indigenous Neighbours coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Alberta says, “It was shocking but not surprising.” Shantz, who retired from MCC…
Leon’s Island
After 20 years of negotiations, planning and construction, the water has gone up behind Manitoba Hydro’s $8.7-billion Keeyask dam about 725 km. north of Winnipeg. The troubled project on the province’s largest river now floods 45 square kilometres. Manitoba Hydro says that is a small area for a 695-megawatt dam, but there is nothing small…
Walking together at a distance
Following current physical-distance guidelines, the fifth annual Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation was held in various parts of British Columbia over the final weekend of May. Although we walked apart, we did so in solidarity with our First Nations brothers and sisters whose families have been affected by the residential school system for many…
Not so radical after all
While people across Canada and around the world self-isolate from COVID-19, work continues on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline in northern British Columbia, without the full consent of the Wet’suwet’en people. The 670-kilometre long pipeline plans to snake through Wet’suwet’en territory and export liquefied natural gas around the world. Steve Heinrichs, director of Indigenous-Settler Relations…
‘They are not alone’
On a very windy, cold and dark Oct. 3 night, Steve Heinrichs, director of indigenous relations for Mennonite Church Canada, and a few others strung 20 dresses on fishing line on both sides of the Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge that spans the Red River near The Forks in downtown Winnipeg. “We lifted up prayers before,…
