Saturday, November 11. 8:45am - 4:00pm

Fort Garry Mennonite Fellowship, 150 Bayridge Ave. Winnipeg

Keynote: Sarah Augustine; with Elder Rev Stan McKay and local contributors Adele Perry and Shelisa Klassen

As Mennonites continue our work toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, we know that repairing harm is a necessary part of moving forward. Join us for a day of conversations around relationship healing, land repair, and land return--beginning with a keynote by Sarah Augustine, Executive Director of The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery.

Registration

Registration is now closed.

Schedule

8:45 Registration
9:00 Welcome, Land Acknowledgment and Elder Opening Prayer
        Bible Study – Zacchaeus
9:30 Keynote
10:30 Wellness break
10:45 Local Input
11:15 Q & A
12:00 lunch
1:00 Breakout Session – 3 options

• Shelisa Klassen - on immigration and settler colonialism in late nineteenth century Canada
• Jonathan Neufeld – Doctrine of Discovery Coalition
  • Jonathan Neufeld, Indigenous Relations Coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada will share how the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery has been knitting together a network of repair communities across the church, who are coming alongside Indigenous movements for land return, repair, restoration and protection. Come to explore the organizing strategies employed by the network, which seeks to act locally and organize (inter)nationally in support of Indigenous priorities.
• MB Stories - Honour the Gifts
  • In this workshop, Kerry Saner-Harvey, Program Coordinator for Indigenous Neighbours with Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba, Jeff Thiessen of Mennonite Church Manitoba, and Esther Epp-Tiessen of Home Street Mennonite will share about ecumenical and congregational efforts to enact reparations. Learn about Share the Gifts, Honour the Treaties, as well as initiatives at Hope Mennonite and Home Street Mennonite churches.

2:00 Food and Wellness break
2:15 Breakout Sessions – repeat
3:15 Wrap-up

Keynotes

Sarah Augustine, who is a Pueblo (Tewa) descendant, is co- founder and Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery. She is also the co-founder of Suriname Indigenous Health Fund (SIHF), where she has worked in relationship with vulnerable Indigenous Peoples since 2005. She has represented the interests of Indigenous community partners to their own governments, the Inter-American development bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the World Health Organization, and a host of other international actors including corporate interests. She is a columnist for Anabaptist World, and co-hosts the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery podcast with Sheri Hostetler. She has taught at Heritage University, Central Washington University, and Goshen College. In Washington State, where she lives, she serves in a leadership role on multiple boards and commissions to enable vulnerable peoples to speak for themselves in advocating for structural change. She and her husband, Dan Peplow, and their son live in the Yakima Valley of Washington. She is author of the book “The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery” (Herald Press 2021). https://dismantlediscovery.org/about/meet-our-staff/

Adele Perry (she/her) is a settler historian who grew up in British Columbia. Since 2000, she has taught at the University of Manitoba, where she is currently Distinguished Professor of History and Women’s and Gender Studies and director of the Centre for Human Rights Research.