Focusing on how restorative justice applies to historical violations, including issues of intergenerational trauma and healing; historical responsibility; and communal narratives among ‘Settlers’ and its impacts on our relationships with our Indigenous neighbors.
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:…
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
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…
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…
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…
By Elaine Enns Conspire, Nov 2010, 4 pp. Elaine interviews Murphy Davis from The Open Door Community in Atlanta, GA describing her tireless work with homelessness and death row, and her searing analysis of the prison industrial complex. (See Ambassadors of Reconciliation, Vol II for Murphy’s complete story and other contemporary witnesses.) Full Article: Justice that…