Bridgefolk asks how to repair harm to Indigenous Peoples
Participants in the Bridgefolk movement for dialogue and greater unity between Mennonites and Roman Catholics have long made the phrase, “Proceed through friendship,” their byword. Celebrating their 20th annual conference under the theme, “Standing at the crossroads,” as they met at Saint John’s Abbey in late July, Bridgefolk found reason to hope that the…
MCC volunteers worked at boarding school being probed
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) supported an Indigenous boarding home that is under investigation by the Saskatchewan RCMP. The Mounties say a complaint was made in 2020 about a death that potentially occurred at the Timber Bay Children’s Home at Montreal Lake, Sask., in 1974. At the time, the home was operated by the Brethren in…
An Indigenous woman’s journey and advice to Mennonites
She was born Danielle Dubois and placed in foster care at age three. She stayed in five different foster homes until, shortly before her fifth birthday, the Loewen family adopted her and gave her a new name. Now known as Theresa Loewen, she grew up on a farm west of Saskatoon and says she “was…
Lamenting the loss of young Indigenous lives
Following the discovery of the remains of 215 children on the grounds of the former Kamloops (B.C.) Indian Residential School by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) laments the loss of these young lives. We acknowledge the deep grief this announcement causes all Indigenous peoples, especially survivors and intergenerational survivors of…
‘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.)…
‘A monument for our resilience’
Janet Bauman recently participated in a 45-minute virtual tour of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford, Ont., with other people from St. Jacobs Mennonite Church; it fit in with the congregation’s worship series on unlearning racism. Carley Gallant-Jenkins, who currently works as the Save the Evidence coordinator for the Woodland Cultural Centre, served…
Building relationships with residential school survivors
“It’s personal, there are names and faces. It’s not just textbook information now.” That’s how Timothy Khoo, 16, describes what it was like to meet residential school survivors while volunteering with Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School in Brantford in July. Khoo was one of 13 youth and leaders from…
