Mennonite Church Canada Update

INDIGENOUS-SETTLER RELATIONS

Responding to Residential School revelations Over the last month and a half, more than a thousand unmarked graves have been identified at the sites of church-run residential schools. The discovery, long spoken-of by survivors, has shaken Indigenous communities and settler society. How might we respond? As we lament the violence of the residential schools, we need to learn more about the settler-colonial structures that created them. We need to support those who are addressing the past and present harms: 

• Consider listening to recent podcasts from the Assembly of First Nations.  
• Reflect on the ways that Mennonites have been involved in the Indian School System: see Confessing the Past 
• Prayerfully read through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, and discern what action you can learn more about and respond to.  
• Follow Reconciliation Thunder’s #94in94 campaign which is highlighting one Call per day toward September 30, the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.  
• Donate to one of the many groups that are supporting the ongoing work of survivors in their quest for justice. 

News from our partners Christian Peacemaker Teams is on the ground supporting Indigenous land defenders as they resist the construction of the Enbridge Line 3 pipe line in Minnesota, under the Mississippi River. Join their call to U.S. Secretary Deb Haaland to uphold treaty law by stopping Line 3 construction. Learn more about this call here: https://cptaction.org/urgent-action-ask-deb-haaland-to-stop-line-3/.

MC Canada Newsletter and Regional Round-up