Sumas Lake, known as Semá:th Lake to the local Stó:lō people, prior to it being drained by government in the 1920s. (City of Vancouver Archives)
“The draining of [Sumas Lake] and our settlement on your ancestral lands was devastating and demoralizing and disrespectful.”
That was part of an apology offered to Semá:th First Nation Chief Dalton Silver and his people by Richard Thiessen, president of the Mennonite Historical Society of B.C.
Sonny McHalsie (in red) tells stories of Kawkawa Lake, or Q’owqewem Lake, to Mennonites on an Indigenous tour in B.C. (Photo by Amy Rinner Waddell)
A nine-hour bus tour gave 30 participants a taste of the history of places that Indigenous people had inhabited for 10,000 years prior to the arrival of Mennonites in B.C. in the 1930s. The July 14 tour was guided by Sonny McHalsie, a cultural advisor and historian at the Stó:lō Nation’s Research and Resource Management Centre located in Chilliwack, B.C.
ABBOTSFORD, B.C.—In reaction to massive flooding in southern British Columbia, Mennonite Central Committee B.C. is inviting cash donations to its B.C. Flood Response. Donations will aid those impacted by heavy rains and flooding. The organization is not at this time inviting donations of goods or material aid. “Our response is still in the process of being developed as we discern the needs that are not being met by others,” MCC B.C. executive director Wayne Bremner said in a news release yesterday. “At this time, we are not involved with the front-line emergency response.
ABBOTSFORD, B.C.—The annual Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Festival for World Relief won’t be taking place in British Columbia this year, but those longing for traditional German ethnic foods can still enjoy their favourites. A Festival-to-Go event is planned for Sept. 20, allowing would-be fair and sale attendees to purchase the ever-popular vareniki (stuffed dumpling) with gravy and farmer’s sausage, watermelon, and rollkuchen (deep-fried pastry) or portzelky (raisin fritters), as long as they order ahead of time.
An exhibit of Mennonite Central Committee B.C. (MCC B.C.) quilts is on display at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, B.C., until the end of August, when they will go to the Tradex to be sold at the MCC B.C. Festival for World Relief on Sept. 13 and 14. All proceeds from the quilt sales support MCC’s work with uprooted and vulnerable people locally and globally. The public is encouraged to visit the museum or stop by the MCC quilt room (open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays) at the MCC Centre on Gladys Avenue in Abbotsford.
—By Amy Rinner Waddell
