Mennonite Heritage Week was proclaimed by Parliament in 2019 to recognize Mennonite resilience, cultural production, and peacemaking efforts. The designation encourages deeper public appreciation of Mennonite contributions to “building Canadian society.” This national recognition coincides with the increasing awareness among Mennonites of their historic involvement in colonization in Canada. During the second week of September this year, Grebel marked Mennonite Heritage Week by drawing attention to an upcoming conference, called Indigenous-Mennonite Encounters in Time and Place, to be held at Grebel in May 2022, that invites reflection on these parts of Mennonite history in Canada and in other contexts.
The Institute of Anabaptist and Mennonite Studies compiled a list of resources that provides a variety of starting points to learn more about the intersection of Mennonite and Indigenous histories in Canada and the work of Mennonite organizations and individuals to address their implication in colonial violence against Indigenous peoples. Some of these resources are available online; others are available in print in libraries or online through institutional access. May these work to prompt deeper and fuller consideration of Mennonite action in the past.
Articles available online at: uwaterloo.ca/grebel/mennonite-heritage-week
