Mennonite Memories of Migrations

Date: 

Saturday, October 25, 2014 - 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Location: 

Conrad Grebel University College

Event type: 

  • Public meeting

Hosted by Dr Marlene Epp, Professor of History and Peace and Conflict Studies at Conrad Grebel University College, and co-sponsored with the Institute of Anabaptist and Mennonite History (IAMS), the afternoon program will feature six story vignettes of Mennonite experience from various historical immigration, including Pennsylvania Germans in the 18th/19th century, Mennonites from the Soviet Union in the 1920s, post-World war II refugees, as well as new Canadian Mennonites who have come in more recent decades from Asia and Latin America. Story tellers include Sam Steiner, Alfred Hecht, Mithouna Vang and Victoria Linares.

Fall Meeting of MHSO, October 25, 2014

With this will be two exhibits. The first is “Along the Road to Freedom,” an exhibition of 22 paintings by Winnipeg artist Ray Dirks. In art and words, the exhibit tells the dramatic stories of women and their families who fled the Soviet Union in the decade after the Russian Revolution and during World War II. 

The second exhibit in the new Mennonite Archives of Ontario Gallery celebrates 90 years of Russian Mennonites in Ontario. Laureen Harder Gissing has curated a selection of records that the refugees needed to negotiate their immigration and setting up lives in a new country. It is a fascinating examination of how Mennonites had to define themselves to each other and the state. 

The afternoon will conclude with a reception.

The event is open to the public at no charge; an offering will be lifted to help with expenses.