National Day for Truth and Reconciliation an opportunity for church to confess and strive towards justice

Sept. 30 a day to honour lost children and survivors of Indian Residential Schools

Katie Doke Sawatzky     |     September 28th, 2021

Photo Source: Government of Canada.

In response to Call to Action #80 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, and the advocacy efforts of many Indigenous peoples, the federal government of Canada has declared September 30, 2021, as the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Previously known as Orange Shirt Day, the day is an opportunity for Canadians to remember the impacts of the 140 Indian Residential Schools that existed across Canada from 1831 to 1998. The TRC estimates that 150,000 children lived at these schools, taken away from their families and communities by force to be assimilated into a Christian, Euro-centric, Canadian society.

“The residential school system was based on an assumption that European civilization and Christian religions were superior to Aboriginal culture, which was seen as being savage and brutal,” states the TRC.

In the summer of 2021, hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at former school sites in Kamloops, B.C., and Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, confirming what many survivors had long suspected, that many children died at the schools.

The TRC’s final report documents how education and living conditions at the schools were substandard. Children suffered malnutrition, disease and abuse at the hands of staff. They were prohibited from speaking their language and from interacting with their siblings. Many were also forced to do physical labour.

The TRC commissioners, made up of then Justice Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson, and Chief Wilton Littlechild, described the school system as an act of cultural genocide, with a legacy of harm that continues into the present.

“Governments in Canada spend billions of dollars each year in responding to the symptoms of the intergenerational trauma of residential schools. Much of this money is spent on crisis interventions related to child welfare, family violence, ill health, and crime….(T)he dramatic overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in foster care, and among the sick, the injured, and the imprisoned, continues to grow,” states the report.

In the summer of 2021, hundreds of unmarked graves were discovered at former school sites in Kamloops, B.C., and Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan, confirming what many survivors had long suspected, that many children died at the schools. More investigations by other First Nations are underway.

Our part

While residential schools were funded by the federal government, churches were contracted to run them. The legacy of harm done in the name of Christ is something that Christian churches continue to grapple with; the Mennonite Church is no exception.

The General Conference Mennonite Church, the binational conference in which Mennonite Church Canada has its roots, administered three schools in the U.S.:

  • Darlington Mennonite Mission (Boarding School) in Okla. (1880-1889);
  • Cantonment Mennonite Mission in Okla. (1883-1901);
  • Indian Industrial School in Halstead, Kan. (1885-1896).

During the Second World War, Mennonite conscientious objectors were sent to teach in Manitoba Day and residential schools.[1]

Three residential schools were run by Mennonites in Northwestern Ontario from 1962 to 1989—Poplar Hill, Cristal Lake and Stirland Lake high schools. While these schools were not run by Mennonite Church Canada or its predecessor Conference of Mennonites in Canada, individuals from groups that eventually formed MC Canada served and taught in them.[2]

In the 1950s and 60s, Mennonite Pioneer Mission, the predecessor of Mennonite Church Canada Native Ministries (now Indigenous-Settler Relations) ran two day schools in Manitoba: Pauingassi and Bloodvein River Mennonite School. Though day schools were not part of the TRC’s findings in 2015, Canada approved a nationwide class settlement for federally operated day schools in 2019.

'This is our story, and the TRC calls us to grapple with ‘our role in colonization.'

“All Christians are connected to this profound legacy of harm,” says Steve Heinrichs, director for Indigenous-Settler Relations. “The Indian school system was wrought in the name of Jesus and, as others have said, ‘What was done in the name of Jesus, needs to be undone in that same name.’ Moreover, settler Mennonites need to understand that we were directly involved in the running and administration of schools. Because we imagine ourselves as peacemakers, we have often distanced ourselves from this colonial history.[3] But this is our story, and the TRC calls us to grapple with ‘our role in colonization’ (Call to Action 59). ’”

The intent of the schools was assimilation – to convert students to Christianity and distance them from their Indigenous cultures. The schools were part of the larger colonial project that, according to the TRC, aimed “to destroy the political and social institutions” of Indigenous peoples in an effort to assert “control over Aboriginal land.”[4]

Strive for justice

In 2010, Mennonite Church Canada delegates passed a resolution to confess complicity in “the failing of the Christian Church and its role in the tragic physical, emotional, mental, and sexual abuse, denial of culture, language, and peoplehood of Aboriginal peoples in Canada.”

Delegates also acknowledged that “destructive individual attitudes, such as paternalism, racism, and superiority are still present among us” and committed to seek “renewed opportunities to walk with the Aboriginal people of Canada, opening our hearts, minds, and ears to engage the pain resulting from the legacy of the residential schools, and strive to recognize each other as sisters and brothers created in the image and likeness of one God.”[5]

Delegates acknowledged that 'destructive individual attitudes, such as paternalism, racism, and superiority are still present among us' and committed to seek 'renewed opportunities to walk with the Aboriginal people of Canada.'

"Since this resolution was passed, Mennonite Church Canada congregations and individuals have taken up the challenge of educating themselves about the injustices that have happened to Indigenous people and communities– things we adults were not taught in school history classes,” says Edith and Neill Von Gunten, former directors of Mennonite Church Canada Native Ministries. “This is a journey that is ongoing. Setting a national day aside is a big step in recognizing our settler role. It is also a call to move forward from learning to action.”

In response to the TRC’s Call to Action #77, Mennonite Church Canada has shared its day school archival materials with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Since 2015 and the release of the 94 Calls, Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations program, together with regional churches and ecumenical partners, has been seeking to honour the Calls that survivors set before all Canadians, with special attention to those aimed at churches and faith groups (see #48, 49, 58-61).

“I urge every Mennonite and every Christian in Canada to read, to pray and to memorize these Calls to the Church,” says Heinrichs. “Indigenous peoples know the paths that can mend our broken relationship. This is the unsettling and holy work that we are summoned to. Let us discern what the Spirit is inviting each of us to do – personally, congregationally—and let’s do it.”

For resources for Truth and Reconciliation Week (Sept 27 to Oct. 1), visit https://nctr.ca/


[1] “Confessing the Past: Mennonites and Indian School System.” 2013, accessed September 27, 2021. https://www.commonword.ca/ResourceView/82/16436.

[2] Northern Lights Gospel Mission, a Mennonite organization based in the U.S., operated all three schools.

[3] See Melanie Kampen, “The Mennonite Peacemaker Myth,” Conrad Grebel Review (Winter 2019), accessed September 27, 2021. https://uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sites/ca.grebel/files/uploads/files/cgr_winter_19_-_kampen.pdf

[4] “Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.” 2015, pg. 1. https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf.

[5] “Residential Schools Resolution: Mennonite Church Canada Christian Witness Council.” 2010, pg 1. https://www.commonword.ca/ResourceView/82/22161.