Journey to Ministikwan
My love of the people, landscapes, flora and fauna of Saskatchewan is deep. This summer Ched and I again experienced its beauty as we traveled around the province by road and by water…
Trauma, White Privilege, and Innocence: Mennonites and Settler Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies
Elaine Enns on: “Trauma, White Privilege, and Innocence: Mennonitesand Settler Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies”Recorded May 17, 2022. Delivered online to Free University of Amsterdam as part of a 7-part series on Mennonites and Innocence.
Healing the Sickness of Mendacity
by Elaine Enns Geez, Fall 2021 In public school, I learned that Canada had been “kinder” to Indigenous peoples compared to the U.S., evidenced by the relative lack of “Indian Wars.” Nineteenth century government policies, however, tell a different story.
Doing Our Own Work
As people of faith, how do we heal family histories entangled with colonization? By Elaine Enns Sojourners, January 2021, pp 30-33 A few years ago, Ched Myers and I discovered this graffiti in my old suburban neighborhood in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, scrawled across a fence just a block from where I grew up: “… as long…
My Loss is your Loss: Toward Settler “Response-ability”
by Elaine Enns Sojourners, October 2017 There is no place in North America that does not have an Indigenous history prior to European colonization. This article briefly describes history of Indigenous Peoples’ day and its impact; names some of the restorative solidarity work settlers are doing and wrestles with deeper issues of settler privilege, self-justifying…
Trauma and Memory: Challenges to Settler Solidarity
by Elaine Enns Consensus, Volume 37 Issue 1 Journeying Together toward Truth and Reconciliation Article 5 This article describes different ways trauma can be passed down intergenerationally (through both nurture and nature) and its impact on the communal narratives of a settler Mennonite community. The piece also includes factors of resilience. Full Article: Trauma and Memory:…
Settler Response-Ability
by Elaine Enns Geez, Fall 2015, 4 pp. Elaine summarizes two resistances in settler communities to building solidarity with Indigenous neighbors: selective memory and distortions in communal narratives. Full Article: Settler Response-Ability SKU: E15-2-Pa
Facing History with Courage: Towards ‘restorative solidarity’ with our indigenous neighbours
by Elaine Enns Canadian Mennonite, Vol 19 Issue 5, March 2015 6 pp. What are barriers to Settler solidarity with Indigenous neighbors? This article outlines three prospects and three problems that Settler descendants need to address in order to embrace “restorative solidarity” that recognizes past and continuing injustices and seeks to make things right. Full…
A Shameful Legacy
by Elaine Enns Sojourners, Dec 2012, 1 p. Elaine describes the horrific history of the Indian Residential Schools and her experience attending the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in Halifax, NS and Saskatoon, SK, and the profound ethos of ritual, care and attentiveness to history, trauma and healing she found there. Full Article: A Shameful…
Creatively Handling Conflict
by Elaine Enns Timbrel Sep/Oct 2012, 3 pp. Myrna Bethke, United Methodist pastor, lost her brother in the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Towers. While that attack was used as a call to war by the leaders of our nation, some of the family members of those killed, including Myrna, made poignant pleas that…