{"id":5334,"date":"2015-11-02T11:52:04","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T17:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=5334"},"modified":"2015-11-02T20:42:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T02:42:11","slug":"youth-learn-about-indigenous-and-settler-relations-at-peace-it-together-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2015\/youth-learn-about-indigenous-and-settler-relations-at-peace-it-together-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth Learn About Indigenous and Settler Relations at Peace It Together Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Meeting Place: Hearing God in Indigenous Voices\u201d was the topic of Peace It Together<\/a> (PIT) 2015, Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s youth conference, which took place October 23-25, 2015.<\/p>\n

The conference focused on making Biblical and Anabaptist themes of peace and justice relevant for today.<\/p>\n

Seventy-five youth, youth sponsors, and pastors from across Canada gathered to hear stories from Indigenous and settler speakers, participate in acts of peace, and build new friendships.<\/p>\n

\"12181843_10153680009904800_1134438156_n\"<\/a>
The KAIROS blanket exercise, facilitated by MCC Canada\u2019s Sue Eagle and Miriam Sainnawap with MCC Canada, kicked off the national youth conference<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was a very valuable experience to be surrounded by likeminded people,\u201d says Marnie Klassen, a grade 12 student from Abbotsford, BC. \u201cIt was so good to have meaningful conversations in an open space\u2014to be open to questioning with both head and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

The weekend began with the KAIROS Blanket Exercise, a workshop that explores the nation-to-nation relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada. Sue Eagle and Miriam Sainnawap, coordinators of Indigenous Neighbours with MCC Canada, led the workshop, which helps participants understand how the colonization of land impacts those were here before settlers arrived.<\/p>\n

Steve Heinrichs, Director of Indigenous Relations at Mennonite Church Canada, and his daughter Abby, shared about settler colonialism and the importance of learning the stories of both Indigenous and settler peoples.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to love someone, you need to know their story. If you want to know someone, you need to learn their story,\u201d said Heinrichs.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4463\"<\/a>
Larry Monkman, an\u00a0elder with the council of elders at Winnipeg\u2019s Circle of Life Thunderbird House speaks to PIT participants<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christy Anderson (CMU \u201911) shared about the impact colonialism has on her life as an inter-generational Residential School Survivor.<\/p>\n

Clairissa Kelly and Wayne Mason spoke about the Peguis First Nation Indigenous Transition Program that CMU is hosting this year. Kelly, Mason, and Della Mason sang ceremonial songs of healing, love, and thankfulness.<\/p>\n

Participants had the opportunity to take part in one of six \u2018acts of peace\u2019 including: learning about seed-saving at the CMU Farm; learning about solidarity activism and creating a solidarity activism art peace; going on a prayer walk through the Canadian Museum for Human Rights; hearing from an elder at the Circle of Life Thunderbird House; visiting Indigenous Family Centre and beading medicine bags; or learning about Christian Peacemaker Teams\u2019 work on Turtle Island.<\/p>\n

Activities such as square dancing, outdoor games, karaoke, and a scavenger hunt provided additional opportunities for youth to get to know each other.<\/p>\n

\"12179246_10153680009479800_15817222_n\"<\/a>
PIT participants discussed how to take what was learned and apply\u00a0the lessons to\u00a0their daily lives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Krista Loewen, Associate Pastor of Wildwood Mennonite Church in Saskatoon, SK, says \u201cAttending PIT reignited a passion for justice within me as a peacebuilder. I was reminded that working to build relationships with my Indigenous neighbours is integral to my faith and how I feel called to live in this world as a follower of Christ.\u201d
\nThe weekend closed with a sharing circle, providing participants with an opportunity to speak about what they will take away from the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am inspired and challenged to go home to a place whose land I know it should be, to step out of my comfort zone, and to build relationships,\u201d says Klassen.<\/p>\n

Youth from Wildwood Mennonite Church also attended: \u201cMy youth were pushed to reimagine the history and legacy of Mennonites in Canada\u2014most notably having to reconcile the fact that Mennonites were given stolen Indigenous land to farm and live to this day,\u201d says Loewen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe youth were also challenged to emotionally connect to this topic that they had learned about in school\u2026and hopefully use their thoughts and emotions to inspire others to consider their relationships with their Indigenous neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n

About CMU
\n<\/strong>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For information about CMU visit www.cmu.ca<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

For additional information, please contact:
\nKevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications & Marketing
\nkkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
\nCanadian Mennonite University
\n500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB\u00a0 R3P 2N2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA Meeting Place: Hearing God in Indigenous Voices\u201d was the topic of Peace It Together (PIT) 2015, Canadian Mennonite University\u2019s youth conference, which took place October 23-25, 2015. The conference focused on making Biblical and Anabaptist themes of peace and justice relevant for today. Seventy-five youth, youth sponsors, and pastors from across Canada gathered to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,5],"tags":[676,601,687,60,507],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5334"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5369,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5334\/revisions\/5369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}